How good are you at managing your assets? If you’re not, there is a way to improve your skill for only a few bucks. That is by playing the game known as Texas Hold ’em (perhaps five-card draw if you’re not as original). How? Well, perhaps I will be able to explain to you. (I should note I’m very bad at poker and this is not written on how to win, but on how to manage money so you don’t lose as hard.)

Though we go pretty hard

I’m going to be explaining this from my point of view, as it is more simple for me to explain (or at least I think it is). The first obstacle you learn to overcome in poker is how to not throw all your money into one pot (if that’s your poker technique you should really not be playing poker anymore). Ideally you should have put aside the amount of money you are willing to lose and use that to play the poker game. If you have not done that you should stop playing and go do that. To learn how to manage one’s money properly you first need to learn how to establish a fallback. Once you have your fallback of cash that will hopefully get you out of the bad situation you got into in Vegas, you can begin playing the game with the money you think you can lose.

The third thing you’ll learn is that bluffing works best with a hint of truth. If your opponents can’t gauge when you’re dumping your money into something good or bad they’ll usually back off. That has very little to do with managing money, but it is kinda important in poker. The third management thing you’ll learn is how to handle your winnings. Many people continue to bet heavily after they’ve won a big round and end up bleeding cash until they’re down to a bare minimum. But if one uses their winnings to gain a few smaller victories and not one big one they’ll quickly find themselves farther ahead.

This is literally the first photo I took on my phone

But the real trick with poker is to lose sustainably. You, as a player of poker, are going to lose. If you’re in a four player game you’re gonna lose about one out of every four rounds played, maybe more, maybe less. What one learns if one wants to continue playing poker is how to take advantage of their winnings and stall their losses enough to, at the very least, break even. This usually involves never going all in. But the most important thing is that you quit when you’ve lost. If you lose the money you set aside, don’t bring anymore into the game. Cooling off and restarting from a different angle is valuable in money, time, and overall life management. Poker is a great way to learn this, if one isn’t a habitual gambler, in which case you’re probably to far gone by now anyway.

I’m not really good at winning poker, but I’ve stubbornly stayed in the game as others have lost all their money. Some days I break even and some days I’m even up. But knowing your limits and how to manage your money keeps you in the game.