I was surprised at the range of strategy games that some players use to improve their poker game.
There are more than a few Pros that played chess and then moved over to Poker. Our own Jen Shahade , Juan "xpastorcitox" Pastor , Richard Gryko and Nuno Alvarez come to mind right away. I was reading about Dan Harrington who won the Main Event at the 1995 World Series of Poker. He was a US chess master but also champion backgammon player.

Russian born International Chess Master and Woman Grandmaster Almira Skripchenko finished seventh in a WSOP NLHE tournament and has a modest tournament winnings total. She credits a game I have never heard of, a Japanese Chess variant called ‘Shogi’ for helping sharpen her mindset.

Go, Battle ship and Connect 4 are about as strategic as I get. Beer fueled Risk with friends is always entertaining but have not really improved my game over the years tbh.

What are your favorite strategy games?