Marketing and Poker
November 25, 2007
Playing poker has a lot of similarities when it comes to the art of marketing. Marketing is basically finding ways and means of selling a product. For example, when you market Diet Coke, you try to find ways to make it sell more in the market. You launch campaigns, you have promotions, and you make all sorts of advertisements to help your product sell. In the game of poker, you are also trying to sell something. You are trying to sell your hand. You are trying to sell what you have. You may be trying to sell a bluff. You may be trying to sell a two three off suit against someone who has a pocket ace. If you are playing the game of poker then you are going to learn a lot from marketing text books.
One of the things that you should keep in mind when it comes to marketing is branding. How do you brand yourself as a poker player? Are you a bluffer? Are you a safe player? Are you outright risky? If you play with some poker players often then they will brand you as such. You can use this to your advantage. If a lot of people think that you are a safe player then you can pull off a bluff once in awhile. Just make sure that you do not get caught! If a lot of people think that you are a risk taker then you can reel in people when you have a hand. These are the things that you should be aware of when it comes to branding and marketing yourself. You should know yourself and you should know how people perceive you so that you know how to act around them.
Another thing that you should keep in mind is public relations. You should know when to talk and when not to talk. Can talking help you in your poker game? The answer is yes and the answer is no. If you talk too much then people might find out what you have. If you do not talk at all then people will think that you are hiding something. You should simply just talk enough. You can actually lure your other competitors to talk too much if you ask the right questions. If you are able to get it out of them then you are a good public relations manager on the poker table.
The homework that you need to do before sitting at the poker table is market research. If you know who your opponents are then you should do your homework on them. Where are they from? What is their occupation? What is their job? These are clues on how to determine the style of a poker player. The more clues you have, the better your chances of selling your winning hand. If you can master marketing and if you can master poker then you will be able to take your poker game to another level. Make sure that you have fun doing these things so that you can enjoy and win at the same time.