Why you should play poker on your mobile right now
There’s a lot of social stigma about video games but there’s also a growing number of health benefits that you can reap from playing. It’s the farthest thing from what people would consider a sport; and you can very well imagine greasy pizza, Cheetos, and soda as the typical diet of video gamers. Some can’t even get off their couches to take a leak. Do all these sound familiar?
That said, if you haven’t heard, there are relevant studies and research that all point to why playing video games is an accepted way of life because it really does have life improving benefits.
Tetris is one of the most universally loved video games ever and it’s said to enhance brain activity and boost efficiency. The Mind Research Network did a study where it was found out that those who played the game more developed thicker cortexes that may have something to do with the coordination of audiovisual movements.
There are also poker video games which, much like their real-world counterparts, really put your mental skills to the test. Poker is a mind sport after all, where keeping track trend developments to plan your moves accordingly is a must for any given game session. The game stimulates the mind and improves your ability to act on your feet, follow your gut, and make the best decision out of various situations. It also improves the cognitive function of the brain by constantly adapting and relearning strategies of the game. Charles Nesson, Harvard professor and founder of the Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society, said to the Boston Globe, “People who are into poker have a lot of trouble holding on to absolutes. To me, it’s a way of thinking liberally and seeing what the world looks like from another person’s point of view.”
This mental aspect of the game translates fairly well to the digital realm. In fact, the game Stacked with Daniel Negreanu even uses a proprietary program called Poki AI. It’s a program developed by the geniuses over at the University of Alberta as a practical application of their research on poker playing patterns. Used on the video game, players were definitely given an authentically challenging experience.
Speaking of Negreanu and digital poker, he and many other top poker pros like him started by playing the card game online. These games may not necessarily have AI as complicated as Poki, but it’s arguable that the human opponents you do go up against potentially posit a higher degree of challenge. A tweet by gaming operator PartyPoker on Twitter further reinforces this aspect of online poker by urging players to study their opponents through chatting them up on a digital poker room’s chat-box, just as they would communicate with (and psychoanalyze) their opponents on an actual poker table.
As for action games, even they have their merits. First-person shooters such as Half-Life and Halo, can rid patients of lazy eye instead of wearing an eye patch. Researchers from the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences of the University of Rochester claim that it has improved concentration too by focusing on certain targets even if there are a lot of variables going on in the game play. Nintendo Wii games helped patients with Parkinsons improve their overall balance as well. There’s also a review from a previous research about video games on Current Directions in Psychological Science that games not only improve your skill on the actual game itself but it also makes your reaction time faster than usual that you can apply on real life scenarios.
Overall, video games not only relieve stress but are also a great escape from all of your day’s preoccupations. These health benefits can very well be beneficial and add value to your practical way of living and who would have thought that playing in your own leisure can also make you a better human being.
