In poker, the best players know how to take risks. It’s not enough to know how to make strong hands and read your opponents; you also need to learn how to evaluate the odds of every action and then be brave in taking those risks. You might lose some hands, but the smartest gamblers will come out ahead in the long run if they do it right. This mindset is important for entrepreneurs too; it helps them to be confident in their decisions and not hesitant to ante up for the big play.

There’s a difference between gambling and investing, though. Gambling involves a positive-sum game with a lower volatility, while investing is a negative-sum game. It’s the latter that requires more risk, but that’s where you’ll find the most profitable players. The key to success in either is to be patient, avoid over-leveraging, and make sure you understand the odds of a particular hand before you play it.

If you’re afraid to gamble, then you’re not a good poker player; you’ll be missing out on a huge opportunity. In life, hesitating to ask for a promotion at work or lacking the confidence to go after something you want are signs that you’re risk-averse. While it’s true that you should always consider the possible consequences of your actions, you can’t live life to the fullest without taking some risks.

There are a lot of different types of risks that you can take in poker, but not all of them are equal. A bad risk might be one that you don’t have the conviction to back up; you bluff with a monster hand but get raised against a big stack, for example. This is called “set mining,” and it’s a big mistake in most cases.

Another type of bad risk is the one that you take because you don’t understand the odds of your hand. You might think that you have a great chance of making a flush with four of the same suit, for instance, but it’s important to realize that there are other players in the game who could have two of those cards too and that you’re wasting your money.

The best way to see the power of calculated risk is to watch a multi-table tournament, where you can see how some players will bet with their entire stack on every single hand. These players are known as sharks, and they’re the ones who will ultimately win the most money in the end. You’ll also see some players “shill” for others, which is a form of collusion that involves one player acting as an agent for another in exchange for a cut of the pot. While this isn’t technically cheating, it’s still a bad strategy for the majority of the table and should be avoided at all costs.