Amir Khan starer Dangal is already out in theaters making good business. The movie crossed more than 350 crores within just two weeks. We are all crazy about the characters and dialogues in the film. Everyone is talking about the greatness of the movie- how a father trained his daughters to become wrestling champions. A biopic based on the real life story of Commonwealth Games Gold Winning Sisters Geeta & Babita Phogat, Dangal offers valuable life lessons for people from various walks of life. We discuss 6 lessons that poker players can learn and implement to improve their game.

1.Set Your Goal and Plan Well to Achieve it

The victory is half won when you learn to set and achieve your goals. Mahavir Singh Phogat ( portrayed by Amir Khan), realized that his daughters had wrestling in their blood and could win a Gold Medal for India. As a result, he set the goal of making them wrestling champions and winning Gold Medals for their country. He didn’t get diverted from his goal and achieved it eventually with his winning strategies. As a poker player, if you have set a goal, you should not divert your focus until you achieve it. Be it online tournament  or live poker tournament, always enter it with a specific goal and strategies in mind. We would suggest you to set poker goals and strategies to win big in 2017.

“When you have a dream you’ve got to grab it and never let go.”

2.Work Hard to Develop Talent & Skills

Success does not come without hard work, though the hard work may not guarantee you the success. Nothing is achieved overnight. Everything requires hard work, skills and talent to reach your goal. Mahavir in Dangal worked really hard and trained his daughters everyday. The father left no stone unturned to groom his daughters to face the challenges in the wrestling world successfully. As a poker player, you also need to practice poker a lot to develop necessary skills and talent. You must understand when to call, raise, go all-in or fold to ensure that you have good run at the poker tables. Be it poker or any other game, only practice and hard work can make you perfect.

“Stop doubting yourself, work hard, develop skills and make it happen for you”

3.Read Your Opponents to Win the Game

Be it about the success in wrestling or live poker tournaments, much depends on how you read your opponents. Analyzing and watching your opponent’s body language is the key to what action you need to take. If you can spot a few tells, it may help you to win the game. In Dangal movie, Mahavir asks his daughter to act smartly by making fake moves to deceive her opponent and win the final world wrestling championship. The same thing applies in poker. There are times when you have to deceive your opponent by raising and making him or her fold and getting their chips at the table.

“ If you can read people, you can really move the world”

4.Change Your Style of Play to Fit the Situation

Be it cricket, wrestling or poker, defense and attack two common strategies to achieve success. Sometimes you require to be defensive, while others times you need to be aggressive. You cannot stick to the same style of play if you really want to win. As seen in Dangal, Geeta Phogat becomes aggressive against some wrestlers in the early stages of the Common Wealth Games, but she became defensive in the final match against the wrestler who is mightier and smarter than her. Like a wrestler, you as a poker player should change your techniques as and when required. When you have got weak cards, you need to be defensive. However, when you have winning cards, you need to be aggressive.

“You cannot change your situation, the only thing you can change is how you deal with it”

5.Keep Your Eyes and Ears Open to Find Opportunity

Mahavir (Aamir Khan) in Dangal realized that wrestling as a sport is not only for the boys. He saw an opportunity and scope for his daughters in this sport. Soon after, he started training them intensively and grooming them to compete with other international wrestlers. Just like Mahavir spotted the opportunity and started working towards it, the same way you need to keep your eyes and ears open to search for the right opportunities in the poker world and then act smartly to reap the real benefits.

“ Nothing is worse than missing an opportunity that could have changed your life”

6.Champions are not Made in a Single Day 

Be it wrestling or poker champions, they are not made in a single day itrequires lot of time, dedication and handwork to be a champion. As seen in Dangal, it is years of effort and dedication of the girls that finally pays off in the form of gold medal that they win for their country. Like wrestling, poker also require years of effort and dedication to even come close to international poker stars like Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, Antonio Esfandiari, Erik Seidel and other big name. So, if you wish to become a poker pro, you need to devote everything to master the game.

“Nothing is achieved overnight. You need years of efforts to master the game”