What Poker Taught Me About Intuition

Poker Face? Try Playing With Energy Instead: 3 Intuitive Wins (and 3 Traps That Cost Me the Game)

Why can you hear your intuition — and still choose not to trust it?

A few days ago, I was playing poker with my family. My husband Ben suddenly said, “Mom’s playing energetically.”

“How do you know?” I asked.

“Because you always have a face on. You literally cannot keep a poker face.”

I burst out laughing — it’s so true, I really can’t “fake it till I make it.” My face gives me away every single time. But here’s the thing: poker face or not, I can still win using energy alone.

That family card game turned into an unexpected lesson in intuitive awareness. In my 1:1 clarity calls, the line I hear most often is: “I can feel it, but I don’t trust myself enough to act on it.” Winning or losing at that table runs on the exact same inner mechanism as deciding whether to walk away from a relationship, pivot your career, or finally invest that money you’ve been sitting on. Here are the three intuitive skills that helped me win, and the three inner traps that made me lose.

3 Intuitive Skills That Helped Me Win

1.    Complete Listening — Listening happens on two levels: listening to your own intuition, and listening to the voice of your guides. You might think, why would my guides care about a card game? But my intention was never about gambling — it was about using the practice to strengthen my connection to inner guidance.

2.    Future Reading — My first three cards looked like a terrible hand. But I could sense a straight was coming, so I raised. Everyone at the table thought I was out of my mind — the cards on the table clearly weren’t in my favor, and my bet had no logical basis. I stayed with that knowing anyway. Sure enough, the straight showed up.

3.    Clear Knowing (Knowing When to Fold) — This isn’t about having good cards. It’s a clear, unmistakable sense that this particular hand isn’t mine to win. So on the surface, I “accepted the loss,” but really I was folding early — saving my resources for the next hand, the one that actually belonged to me.

3 Inner Traps That Made Me Lose

1.    Ego — Even when I could hear my intuition telling me what to do next, my ego refused to lose. “My own son is playing better than me?!” Or going head-to-head with my husband: “How could I almost lose to the exact same move twice?!” That refusal to lose pulled me away from the clarity I already had.

2.    Misplaced Compassion (Limiting Beliefs) — When I saw my son losing badly, my instinct was to hand him some of my own chips so he could keep playing. My husband later pointed out, “You don’t need to give him more — there’s already enough on the table for him to turn it around.” He was right. Why did I feel like I had to empty myself out before I could count it as “helping”? That misplaced compassion was really a limiting belief — one that ties my self-worth to sacrificing myself to rescue someone else.

3.    Distraction — The moment my attention leaves the table, my energy scatters toward the next thing on my mental to-do list — the kids are hungry, I should prep a meal, I haven’t posted on Instagram today, the floor could use a vacuum. That mental noise pulls me out of the present flow. And when I’m not fully present, I can’t create a high-quality game — let alone win one.

This card game confirmed something for me: intuition isn’t mysticism. It’s a muscle you build in everyday life. What “hand” are you holding right now — the resignation letter you keep not sending, the relationship you’re not sure you should still be waiting on, or the investment you’ve hesitated on for far too long?

Next time you find yourself losing a “hand,” resist the urge to blame bad luck. Ask instead: is this ego refusing to lose? Is this me mistaking sacrifice for worth? Or am I simply not present? Once you can see these three traps clearly, every loss becomes fuel for the win that’s actually meant for you.

May we all master our own version of a poker face — one that wins through energy, not expression.

Curious which of these three traps shows up most in your own life? Book a 1:1 Clarity Call and we’ll map your personal pattern together — so your next hand wins from the very first card.

Further Reading: “5 Signs You’re Losing Touch With Your Inner Guidance” — if you also often “feel it but don’t trust it,” this piece gives you a clearer framework for spotting exactly where the signal is getting lost.

Much Love,

Anne 💖