Have you ever thought of video poker as a form of meditation? There are days when I find that it helps me when I need to still my mind or even focus my attention. Both video poker and regular poker focus on cards, strategy and money. But with regular poker, players focus not only on their cards but on the other player and the competition. Games can be intense and competition is tough. But though there is a focus, it isn’t particularly zen like.
But video poker is different. I need to focus on my strategy and on the cards in front of me, but there are no other distractions. In fact, if I let my focus wander, I find myself losing concentration and missing a good hand. So, I have to focus on the cards and the simple action of deal, hold, reveal. Plus the action of watching my money as it goes up and down.
With a good game of video poker, I find myself falling into a meditative state. I focus on my cards and my game and the world sort of fades away. Which means my stress level drops. Okay, maybe it doesn’t drop if I’m losing too much money, but sometimes I play a new site in the practice mode so that money is just a virtual concern.
There have been studies out there that suggest that gambling actually helps people reduce their stress levels. Perhaps it’s this focused concentration that’s responsible for the reduction rather than the actual winning of great amounts of money. Though, over all, perhaps winning great amounts of money would also lower my stress.
