Slots and poker are just about the most different any two casino games can be! Yet, there are some important lessons that poker players can learn from slots. At Juicy Stakes Poker we feel that every positive lesson we can learn is valuable.
The Value of Relaxation
Slots are designed to give the most relaxation to gamers when they most need to relax. That’s why slots are the most popular game at almost every online casino. People come back home after a long day at work, or if they work at home (still common in the era of the corona virus) they close their work station and head for the living room.
In both of these scenarios, a lot of people simply want to relax and slots provide one of the best ways for people to unwind and relax. Slots are pure games of chance. There is no slots math, no bluffing, no evaluation of hand ranges, position, or one’s opponents’ playing habits.
Slots offer a wide range of story lines that gamers use especially at online casinos to relax in a deeply entertaining way.
Poker is the opposite of slots in that it is by far the least relaxing of all games. Still, slots teach us that relaxation is a vitally important component of a happy person’s mental outlook. So, poker players should learn every technique that can lead them to relax during the high pressure moments of a poker game or tournament.
Daniel Negreanu uses chattering endlessly as his primary relaxation technique. On the other hand, Phil Helmuth doesn’t have a go to relaxation technique which is why he goes on tilt so often.
The Value of Luck
Slots are all about luck. One very lucky spin can win more than a million dollars in a progressive jackpot. Slots players know that luck not only plays a big part in the outcome of every spin, they know that luck alone determines the outcome of every spin.
In slots, the luck comes from the random number generator. In poker, the luck comes from the deck of cards. There are far too many poker players who feel that luck should play no role at all in determining the outcome of a poker hand. But, Phil Helmuth famously once said the opposite: "If there weren't luck involved, I would win every time."
By accepting the presence of luck in every hand, a good poker player can bounce back quickly from a bad beat to play as well as they can play on the next and on all subsequent hands.
The combination of relaxation and accepting luck lead to the third lesson we can learn from slots.
Slots Teach us How to Avoid Tilt
Tilt is basically excessive emotionalism in poker or in any other activity. Getting stuck in a traffic jam can send some drivers over the edge and into tilt. Getting bad service anywhere can lead to tilt. Being put on hold is a major cause of tilt in our modern world.
Slots at their best take us away from all of the actions that can lead to tilt. Of course, you can’t play slots while you are at the poker table! At the poker table, you need to concentrate on every hand and on every action you or your opponents make.
It is possible to cultivate the feeling of calm that can come from playing slots and to activate that feeling when you are playing poker.
The Importance of Variance
This is a slots term that some players call volatility. Actually, volatility may be the more appropriate term for poker players. To a certain extent, we are back at the discussion about luck since volatility is directly related to the combination of poker skill and pure luck.
You might make all of the right moves on a hand and you might set the perfect trap. Still, a player might get amazingly lucky against you on the river. This is the essential nature of volatility.
When a poker player acknowledges the role that volatility plays, he or she might be able to accept volatility in the cards without it taking hold in one’s body or mind.
When volatility hits a poker player’s body it causes such stomach distress that the only real way to deal with it is to leave the table. When volatility hits a poker player’s mind as a negative sensation, it wreaks havoc with absolutely every aspect of poker play since at bottom poker is a cold and calculating game while a mind beset by volatility is the diametric opposite of cold and calculating.
Every Pot is a Kind of Progressive Jackpot
Very few pots ever get to the million dollar range. Still, every pot in poker grows as players bet and raise and call. The progressive jackpot a slots player may be playing may have gotten to well over one million dollars. It says so right three on the screen. Nevertheless, until you win the jackpot, you haven’t won the jackpot!
Come Back Next Time
A lot of casino gamers set time limits on their gaming sessions. This works very well for gamers at an online casino since the casino is always there for them. It works very poorly at land based casinos since when a plyer leaves that casino and goes home, the casino does not come home with them!
Online gamers can end a slots session on time or early if their luck is running thing that day. At a land based casino, most players try to work through the losing streaks. After all, why did they come to the land based casino if they aren’t going to gamble?
The same applies to poker. It is especially true of online poker at Juicy Stakes Poker or any other online poker room. Since players at Juicy Stakes have not invested money getting to the casino, they can easily leave a game on a day when their luck is running dry and come back another day.
The Importance of Having Fun
At their ultimate best, slots are a fun pastime. Poker cannot be said to have the same measure of fun as slots. Still, poker players who look to poker as a fun exercise can get a lot more pleasure from the game than players who see poker as a form of war.
Playing poker for fun means staying at the stakes level that best suits the player’s skill level and bankroll. It involves enjoying the challenge of figuring out how the opponents are playing and what kind of hands they are betting on.
Join Juicy Stakes Poker
We at Juicy Stakes invite everyone who is not yet a member of our poker playing universe to join NOW! We offer poker in several different variations of the game and at several different stakes levels.
Everyone can have a great time playing poker here at Juicy Stakes and can channel their inner slots player for the benefits that entails!
