Although most parents would be happy for their children to learn a game such as chess, poker is not usually associated with being suitable for children. Tony G, full name Antanas Guoga, has never been shy about saying what he thinks out loud, and many will disagree with him on this, but think about it. Many good life lessons can ultimately come from playing chess or poker.
Tony G claims that it was poker, in fact, that made him the person he is today. In one of his Twitter posts, he talks about knowing a large number of poker players who have gone on to work as hedge fund managers and sometimes even created their own funds.
Garry Kasparov, one of the best chess players of all time, wrote a book called "How Life Imitates Chess". The book is full of examples of how learning chess can improve general life skills, especially in children. But these ideas could also be exemplarily applied to poker. The most obvious example is learning to take responsibility for your own actions - you and only you in poker/chess are responsible for any decision you make.
Although, unlike chess, there is an aspect of luck in poker, we all know that once a large enough sample size is played, it becomes a minimal factor. Tony G says of this that it is important that poker is seen as a game of skill and not a game of chance. For this reason, there should be no objection to children learning the game and playing it instead of wasting their time with various video games and social networking on their phones.
Another key skill for life is the ability to make difficult decisions when we are under pressure and have limited information. This leads to adaptability and flexibility, which again are great life skills that are best learned at an early age.
Tony G (@TonyGuoga) on why poker should be taught in schools:
- Connor Richards (@crichards1995) May 2, 2024
I think poker is a great game to be taught in schools alongside chess. I think poker is great because you do have to manage stuff. You have to think about things. And we see kids playing video games too much.
And I... pic.twitter.com/yGTCzKELBn
Poker is great at teaching us how to learn from our mistakes. The amount of decisions that are made during a session makes it clear that there are very few activities that can match poker in this regard. This point alone should be enough to encourage hesitant players who feel they are too bad to continue playing. Every mistake is a learning opportunity, and believe us, mistakes will always occur, no matter how good a player you become. This brings us to resilience - a common trait of almost all successful people that can be learned in poker. It is no mistake to teach a child how to be more resilient, especially in this high-stress modern world we live in.
Overall, while we are obviously biased, Tony G's suggestion to teach poker in schools alongside chess has, in our opinion, many advantages. Do you agree?
Sources - Chess.com, Twitter (X), Thuprai, vip-grinders.com
