Do you want to boost your career? Play poker.

 You want to give your career an extra boost? Poker is a great way to boost your career.

Jenny Just, self-made billionaire Jenny Just said that the game encouraged strategy and decision-making. This is what women need to be able to succeed in both the office and outside of it.

Jenny Just's husband brought their thirteen-year-old daughter home after a tennis lesson in 2013. He was frustrated. Their child was an excellent tennis player but she was not planning on strategizing or analyzing her opponent's strengths.

"She needs to learn poker," Matt Hulsizer, her husband, said offhandedly.

Just, who works in finance technology and is among 23 women self-made billionaires in America, couldn’t stop thinking of her husband’s comment. She agreed that poker could teach her daughter the skills of winning, as it encourages strategy, decision making, and confidence.

So Just got 10 high school girls (mostly eighth graders) together for four lessons of 60 minutes taught by a local poker player from their hometown, just outside Chicago. The lessons were intended for teens, but their mothers wanted them to learn.

It was like lightning struck in a bottle," Just stated. Just started her career working as an options trader. This is a role that is dominated largely by men. Hulsizer and Just later moved into financial tech. Together, they co-own PEAK6, a multi-billion-dollar global fintech company.

The girls were able to pair up in the first lesson. They whispered to each others and even shared chips if they lost. Just noticed a vast difference by the fourth lesson. "They are standing tall. They are barely looking at their cards. They aren't talking to anyone. "And nobody's taking those chips away from them," she recalled.

Just asked a Chicago poker enthusiast and schoolteacher to help develop a poker curriculum that would be useful for female high school students from three other states. Just decided to create Poker Power, an educational platform that allows women to learn the game online after the Covid-19 pandemic. It offers 12 hour-long learning sessions taught by women. There are also opportunities to practice with other women in your local community.

The program has been completed by approximately 10,000 women across 40 countries since it was first started three years back. She hopes these women will not only learn about the game, but also get valuable lessons to use in their professional and personal lives that involve risk, money, and strategy.

According to current estimates, women make up just 5% of the players in poker rooms. Just wondering: "Would the world look different if half of poker players were women?"

When she first started playing poker, she said, “The skies opened up.” I realized that I had been playing poker all my adult life. It just wasn't something I knew."

It was a gamble throughout her career in trading and building companies. She explained that options trading is a gamble. "All day long, we lose 40% of our trades." Of the 15 companies Just bought or started, "not all" were success stories. Sometimes she had to "fold." Just believed in taking risks. She explained that poker mirrors some risk and allows women to play in a safe environment.

This is an example. If you take 1000 college freshmen and ask them to sit down at a poker table without any prior experience, 995 men will agree. If you ask 1000 college freshmen women, 995 will sit down with no prior experience.

Just said. Power Poker is designed to allow women to be comfortable being uncomfortable. It allows them to learn and support each other from different backgrounds. So You Want to Learn About Poker?