Welcome to the third and final part of the new player guide. This section is a collection of essays written by myself (Toasty!) which should hopefully bring your game together enough to put you on the right track.
The essays are:
TILT - The Poker Demon
Sit 'N' Go's (SNGs)
Limit Holdem
TILT - The Poker Demon
As I've stated before, one of the most important skills needed to be successful in poker is discipline. Without it, sooner or later you're going broke, it's that simple. Perfect discipline is playing every hand in every given situation correctly and always aiming to put your money in with "the best of it" (i.e. as a favourite to win).
But just because you are putting your money in as a favourite doesn't always mean you will win, if you rolled a dice and won on a roll of 1-5 but lost on a 6 you wouldn't be too amazed if a 6 rolled as you know the dice sometimes rolls a 6. It amazes me how some people react online when they have AA beaten by a far inferior hand, they act like it’s a statistical improbability and the site is fixed. Personally my AA wins the pot around 70%-80% of the time, it hurts when it loses but most of the time I don't even blink at the bad beat (bad beat = losing as a big favourite).
Now you know that AA losing isn't uncommon but quite the opposite (I consider 1 in 5 times to be common) what about AA losing the last 3 times you have it or 5 times etc. This is less common but isn't rare, if something’s statistically probable to happen it probably will happen. For instance QQ (which isn't as strong as AA but is still a powerful hand) finished a months play down (I would have been better off that particular month folding QQ PF every time I was dealt it) after being dealt the hand 28 times. KK was also a losing hand half way through the month but recovered towards the end. Although it's frustrating, its all part of the swings. If AA wins roughly 75% of the time, you could lose 5 straight and win the next 15 straight.
Although this is only the basics on swings I want you to understand that favourite hands do not always win and it's important to get used to bad beats as they happen more often than you think. People rarely keep track of how often AA wins but once it loses they soon notice. Bad beats are also a good sign of a good table; people are willing to gamble against you with the worst of it (matching your bets with a lower chance of winning).
If you fail to take bad beats eventually you are going to hit TILT. TILT is basically your emotions playing poker for you as opposed to your head. "How the hell could he call with 72o?!", "Grrrr, that's twice AA has lost in the last hour!". Before long you will be playing more hands as your patience disappears and raising weak hands due to frustration leading in turn to more bluffs. Once people spot you're on TILT it won't take them long to start calling those raises with better hands and calling your bluffs with weak hands which will only increase your TILT. People will even start berating players who deal them bad beats to the point of even educating them on how many outs they had and how they shouldn't have called???? This is just plain madness!! Going back to the dice example, if you had a someone who was willing to play you at dice - a 1-5 lands you win $1, a 6 rolls they win $1. You wouldn't berate them and explain how they only have a 1/6 chance of winning when they rolled a 6 against you. If anything you would congratulate them "Nice Roll, you can sure roll those sixes" knowing that you are going to win 5$ for each $1 you lose over time. Receiving bad beats is exactly the same thing, although it hurts and can sometimes even be devastating, it's a good thing. Do you want people to only call you when they are the favourite to win?
With the main cause of TILT covered the second one is also important chasing losses (or even chasing wins). That is you find yourself down x amount and you are "trying to win your money back". This is also described as being "stuck" - the obvious reason because you won't move until you have made it back. ie - "He's stuck for $200". You can also chase your losses "I just want to get back up to x amount" when you have had a good win and lost some if it. It can be very hard not to think in these terms but you will have to overcome them to succeed in poker. Chasing your losses can lead to jumps in stakes where two things will happen:
1 - You will lose at a higher rate (which you can't afford to lose at) Or
2 - You will win which will weaken your discipline for the future and leave you with the wrong strategic impression. There is no room for progressive betting within Holdem Poker using the higher stakes to recoup losses. This is worse for your long term development.
Once you start thinking more about the long term rather than individual sessions, you will be a step closer to being a successful poker player. You will make your poker career/hobby very difficult for yourself if you overly concentrate on short term results. You can play a losing session perfect and play a winning session poorly.
If you sense TILT coming on take a break and return once you have calmed down, no one expects you to be a robot, taking bad beats hand after hand is going to effect you emotionally, make a drink (non-alcoholic) to relax for a few minutes. You can also introduce stop limits to reduce your day to day variance (please note this makes absolutely no effect to long-term win rates but can help you avoid getting stuck). For instance if you win or lose $50 you stop playing for that day or session. The only benefit from this method is avoiding hitting TILT when you lose x amount and start chasing your losses.
That's it for TILT even knowing all this you will still have TILT and sometimes lose due to TILT but you must recognise it and manage it. I currently have a high TILT tolerance, but I'm not immune and occasionally decide to stop playing until I'm in the right mind-set.
Sit n' Go's or SnG's
These one table tournaments can be an excellent and safe way to build your bankroll, the players at the lower limits are very weak and consistent tight play is usually all that is needed for an ITM finish (ITM=In the money). You're strategy needs to change slightly from your cash games strategy as you can't reload once your chips have gone. There is lots of great advice in the (INSERT LINK TO FORUMS) forums concerning how to play these and I won't go into great deal on how to play them. I'll just explain a few pros and cons about them.
Pros:
Once you have managed to become a winning player at these the variance is very low and you should be able to make a steady profit without any wild swings to your bankroll.
You can begin building experience that will come in handy later when you start playing the bigger Multi-Table Tournaments
There are currently no books available on single table tournaments so unless the other players are active in poker forums you can have a big advantage over them due to your superior strategy.
In my opinion, easier to beat than cash games.
Cons:
The bad beats hurt a lot more in tournaments, especially if you are eliminated with one.
You can play for up to an hour, only to get eliminated by a single bad beat. On some poker sites the later stages of the tournament can turn into a crapshoot - that is whoever gets dealt the best hand wins as the blinds are so high you have to play almost any hand.
Limit Holdem
Some people call this a game for "old men with no balls", but I prefer the saying that "No-Limit Holdem is an Art and Limit Holdem is a science". In Limit holdem there is usually always a right move to make as bluffing is extremely hard due to the bets being limited.
This means 99% of the time the best hand wins, it also means that a lot of people will stay to the river card (especially at the low limits) and this is where the other saying "No Foldem Holdem" comes from. This can also increase your bad beats, due to so many people staying in hoping for and hitting miracle cards and at the same time when your hand does stand up (doesn't get outdrawn) you will win a big pot. The variance can be quite big in Limit and it's widely accepted that you need at least 300BBs.
If you choose to play Limit Vs No Limit I would strongly advise you buy and read Lee Jones "Winning Low Limit Holdem" before you start to play and keep re-reading until you know the book inside out. It is a great book on how to beat low limit holdem.
Limit Holdem is a very analytical game if you find no-limit holdem isn't your game and prefer your decisions to be more precise maybe Limit is for you.
Sunday, February 11, 2007
The Beginner's Guide to Online Poker: Getting Started Part2
First things first, try to save the details of every single hand you play. Almost all of the poker sites give the option of emailing you hand histories. These give all the details of hands you have played from stack sizes to position. If you don’t keep these you will never be able to tell what hands you are winning with and what hands you are losing with.
1. Slowly Losing Money
If this is the case, it’s time to take a good look at your game for leaks. Leaks are a weakness in your game that could be costing you a few bucks here and there that you don’t even know about. I’ll list a few here that you can check using the re-player and forum I mentioned above.
Calling too much in the Small Blind - A trash hand is still a trash hand. Although it’s cheap to see what could be a miracle flop, at best you are going to make a weak pair that is only going to cost you money in the long run. Once you have built up your experience, you will know when you can go for plays like this and also know when that weak pair is good/bad.
Over protecting your Big Blind - “I’m already half in right?”. Wrong!, once that money is in the pot, it’s no longer your money. Similar problems arise as “calling too much in the small blind”. With both these situations, you are also going to be out of position for the rest of the round (one of the first to act).
Not raising enough pre-flop - When you are losing money, the tendency is to play weak with regards to raising. You don’t want to put money in until you know you have the best hand. Sounds good, but this will only cost you more money. The fact is pre-flop there is a good chance you already have the best hand! For example you hold AKo, rather than make a decent size raise you decide to call and see if you hit the flop first. Well Mr Axs gets to come in for cheap and while you make an Ace on the flop for TPTK (top pair top kicker), he makes 2 pair or picks up a flush draw to bust you with later. If you had raised you might have forced him to fold pre-flop.
Inability to get away from a hand - If you have QQ, and the board has AK3 - and it’s a multi-way pot (more than 2 people) and there is action, it doesn’t matter that you have a pair of Queens, it's time to move out of the way. As you build experience you will get to know when your strong hands are no good and when your weak hands are the best. Until then, examine your play and post hands in the forum you are unsure about.
Under betting your good hands - You can’t win every hand, to make money is simple, win more money than the cost of the blinds and your losing hands. You might be losing the minimum on your losing hands, but winning the maximum on your winning hands. The two most common problems are:
1. Over betting – if you flop a full house don’t push all in, most of the time every will fold and you will win a small pot. Occasionally someone will think you are bluffing and call but why win a small pot with a very strong hand.
2. Under betting – You make two pair and rather than make a pot sized bet (a bet equal to the current amount of money in the pot), you make a weak bet and people call along to outdraw you for cheap, or you discover someone made 2nd best hand and would have been willing to pay more to see a showdown.
Invest in PokerTracker! - Poker Tracker is a software program that you use to analyze your poker game and help identify the leaks you have. You load your hand histories into Poker Tracker, and then analyze your statistics. Not only can you learn about your own game, Poker Tracker allows you to analyze your opponents' games, for those whom you have hand histories for. Read more about Poker Tracker here.
These are just some suggestions, there are many more types of leaks. With experience, you will be able to spot them quicker and for every leak fixed is extra $$ in your pocket. These are just a few, but there are many more types of leaks. With experience, you will be able to spot them quicker and for every leak fixed is extra $$ in your pocket.
1. Slowly Losing Money
If this is the case, it’s time to take a good look at your game for leaks. Leaks are a weakness in your game that could be costing you a few bucks here and there that you don’t even know about. I’ll list a few here that you can check using the re-player and forum I mentioned above.
Calling too much in the Small Blind - A trash hand is still a trash hand. Although it’s cheap to see what could be a miracle flop, at best you are going to make a weak pair that is only going to cost you money in the long run. Once you have built up your experience, you will know when you can go for plays like this and also know when that weak pair is good/bad.
Over protecting your Big Blind - “I’m already half in right?”. Wrong!, once that money is in the pot, it’s no longer your money. Similar problems arise as “calling too much in the small blind”. With both these situations, you are also going to be out of position for the rest of the round (one of the first to act).
Not raising enough pre-flop - When you are losing money, the tendency is to play weak with regards to raising. You don’t want to put money in until you know you have the best hand. Sounds good, but this will only cost you more money. The fact is pre-flop there is a good chance you already have the best hand! For example you hold AKo, rather than make a decent size raise you decide to call and see if you hit the flop first. Well Mr Axs gets to come in for cheap and while you make an Ace on the flop for TPTK (top pair top kicker), he makes 2 pair or picks up a flush draw to bust you with later. If you had raised you might have forced him to fold pre-flop.
Inability to get away from a hand - If you have QQ, and the board has AK3 - and it’s a multi-way pot (more than 2 people) and there is action, it doesn’t matter that you have a pair of Queens, it's time to move out of the way. As you build experience you will get to know when your strong hands are no good and when your weak hands are the best. Until then, examine your play and post hands in the forum you are unsure about.
Under betting your good hands - You can’t win every hand, to make money is simple, win more money than the cost of the blinds and your losing hands. You might be losing the minimum on your losing hands, but winning the maximum on your winning hands. The two most common problems are:
1. Over betting – if you flop a full house don’t push all in, most of the time every will fold and you will win a small pot. Occasionally someone will think you are bluffing and call but why win a small pot with a very strong hand.
2. Under betting – You make two pair and rather than make a pot sized bet (a bet equal to the current amount of money in the pot), you make a weak bet and people call along to outdraw you for cheap, or you discover someone made 2nd best hand and would have been willing to pay more to see a showdown.
Invest in PokerTracker! - Poker Tracker is a software program that you use to analyze your poker game and help identify the leaks you have. You load your hand histories into Poker Tracker, and then analyze your statistics. Not only can you learn about your own game, Poker Tracker allows you to analyze your opponents' games, for those whom you have hand histories for. Read more about Poker Tracker here.
These are just some suggestions, there are many more types of leaks. With experience, you will be able to spot them quicker and for every leak fixed is extra $$ in your pocket. These are just a few, but there are many more types of leaks. With experience, you will be able to spot them quicker and for every leak fixed is extra $$ in your pocket.
The Beginner's Guide to Online Poker: Getting Started Part1
So, you've decided to play for real money online and make some easy money.
If you have never played for real money before, don’t make the mistakes almost all new players make when they begin playing for real money. They are:
Finish watching the WPT, make a deposit online, and jump straight into a NL ring game. Two things will happen if you do:
One - You will lose money right from the get go. Or, two, Which is worse, you will get lucky and make a lot of money, become over-confident, and then lose it all.
Number Two is a bigger problem than number One, as the new player will be on a good run moving quickly up though the limits getting luckier and luckier. It’s not unheard of to hear a player going from a $50 deposit to $3000 in just a few days from over-risking their bankroll. This gives him the illusion that he is a great player who has some natural skill to the game, and when they go bust they think they must have gotten unlucky. The reality is, of course, that their luck ran out. This is where one of two things can happen - they do some research and realize they were very foolish, or re-deposit under the illusion of greatness and lose more money.
Another problem for new players happns to those who have played a few years at B&M (Brick and Mortar) casinos. They have usually never read a poker book, have probably broke even, or had equally good nights and bad nights at the casinos.
They approach online poker feeling superior “heh, I’ve played in live games, these Internet chumps won’t know what hit them”. The reality is that the competition is actually tougher online, with many of the experts agreeing that the 0.5/1 2/4 5/10 limit games play like the live 2/4 5/10 20/40 games. They jump straight in with as little as 100BBs (Big Bets i.e. at 2/4 Limit $400=100BBs) and proceed to go broke.
This is when you hear players complain about fixed sites and strange flops. Online games run a lot faster than their real life counter parts. Being dealt around 80 hands per hour and playing 2 tables at once can equate to playing 4 live hours in a casino. Also they fail to realize that they are usually playing looser than if they were playing in a live game - it’s easier to click call than it is to say “Call” and showdown a hand that would cause embarrassment. Online games for the most part are also very aggressive compared to live games and a different approach is usually needed.
If you have never played for real money before, don’t make the mistakes almost all new players make when they begin playing for real money. They are:
Finish watching the WPT, make a deposit online, and jump straight into a NL ring game. Two things will happen if you do:
One - You will lose money right from the get go. Or, two, Which is worse, you will get lucky and make a lot of money, become over-confident, and then lose it all.
Number Two is a bigger problem than number One, as the new player will be on a good run moving quickly up though the limits getting luckier and luckier. It’s not unheard of to hear a player going from a $50 deposit to $3000 in just a few days from over-risking their bankroll. This gives him the illusion that he is a great player who has some natural skill to the game, and when they go bust they think they must have gotten unlucky. The reality is, of course, that their luck ran out. This is where one of two things can happen - they do some research and realize they were very foolish, or re-deposit under the illusion of greatness and lose more money.
Another problem for new players happns to those who have played a few years at B&M (Brick and Mortar) casinos. They have usually never read a poker book, have probably broke even, or had equally good nights and bad nights at the casinos.
They approach online poker feeling superior “heh, I’ve played in live games, these Internet chumps won’t know what hit them”. The reality is that the competition is actually tougher online, with many of the experts agreeing that the 0.5/1 2/4 5/10 limit games play like the live 2/4 5/10 20/40 games. They jump straight in with as little as 100BBs (Big Bets i.e. at 2/4 Limit $400=100BBs) and proceed to go broke.
This is when you hear players complain about fixed sites and strange flops. Online games run a lot faster than their real life counter parts. Being dealt around 80 hands per hour and playing 2 tables at once can equate to playing 4 live hours in a casino. Also they fail to realize that they are usually playing looser than if they were playing in a live game - it’s easier to click call than it is to say “Call” and showdown a hand that would cause embarrassment. Online games for the most part are also very aggressive compared to live games and a different approach is usually needed.
Rules for Table Selection:
There are many things you can do to increase your poker skill; you should do them. However, it is unlikely that you will do anything between now and your next poker session that will dramatically increase your skill. Reading the right books, studying some articles, reviewing your play will help you; but, barring an epiphany, when you sit down this evening to play poker, you will likely be about the same skill level that you are right now.
But there is a way of improving your chance of winning on your very next online session; regardless of your current poker skill.
You can achieve this amazing result through 'table selection'. Table selection is the practice of being choosy about what tables you play and about where you sit at those tables. Regardless of your poker skill, you can increase your chance of winning through proper table selection.
Rule #1 for Table Selection
Play at tables where the other players are worse than you are. It may sound trite, but it is true regardless of your skill level. You win more often when the people at the table do not play poker as well as you do. The 100th most skilled ring poker player in the world is certainly damn good. But if he sits down at a table with numbers 1 through 9 he is likely in for a bad afternoon. Conversely, a mediocre player is likely to have a pretty good day if he sits a table of people who can not play anywhere near his level.
Things that will help you do this:
1) Play within your bankroll. See all the articles on bankroll management.
2) Regardless of your starting bankroll, do not start higher than the 0.10/0.25 NL tables if you are new to poker.
3) Keep general notes on other players. Avoid sitting at tables with players that have confounded you in the past. Try to sit at tables with players that you have previously noted are worse than you. They are worse than you when you understand what their actions mean. Regardless of your Absolute Poker skill, when you reach the point that you are certain what another player's actions mean, you are better than they are. You want to play against these people.
Rule #2 for Table Selection
Take a seat where the players to your right have money. Money tends to flow clockwise in Texas Hold'em (which is to say that it tends to flow from the earlier positions to the later positions.) for now, accept this principle. You want to pick a seat where you will typically have position on players that have money. Because that money will tend to flow your way.
Rule #3 for Table Selection
Take a seat where the players to your right bet and raise a lot of losing hands (loose). Not only do you want them to have money (rule 2), you want them to be willing to lose it to you.
Rule #4 for Table Selection
Take a seat where the players to your left have very little money. Position, acting after other players, is very important in Texas Hold'em. Again, for now, accept this principle. At a ten man table, you will be the last to act 10% of the time (being the Dealer, or the Button). Imagine playing at a table where the player to your left has 1 penny. Granted, he acts after you do. But his actions are trivial to you because he can only bring one penny into play. He cannot chase you out of a pot with a big bet. You would not mind calling his meaningless All-In, even if you had a speculative hand. At that table, you are effectively last to act when HE is the dealer because no one cares what he does. Sitting with a tiny stack to your left (or better yet two tiny stacks) makes you the last to act 20-30% of the time, instead of everyone elses 10%. There is another great thing about having small stacks to your left. We said above that money tends to flow to the players that have position. The players to your left have position on you but they have no money to bet. On any given hand, they can only get as much money from you as they have in their stack. As they have small stacks, not much of your money will be flowing to them because they cannot make you put a lot of money in the pot, even when they have an outstanding hand and you have a great one that is 2nd best.
Rule #5 for Table Selection
Take a seat where the players to your left will only bet or raise when they have VERY good hands (tight). As mentioned above, position is important. You typically get to see the actions of the people to your right (you have position on them.) But you have to guess what the players to your left are going to do after you act (they have position on you.) By sitting with tight players to your left, you know what they are going to do. They are going to fold unless they have a VERY good hand. If you bet and they raise, then you are likely beat; put no more money in the pot.
Rule #6 for Table Selection
If, while sitting at a table, you discover that it is not the kind of table you want to be at, get up and leave. This may seem trite, but it is one of the primary reasons people lose money at a poker table. They just will not leave the table, even after they realize the table is not right for them. You are not in competition with the table! You are trying to make money playing poker! Perhaps you followed the guidelines above. But 30 minutes later you notice that the players to your right now have very little money, the players to the left now have much larger stacks than you, and that guy that always seems to know what cards you have just sat down to your left (he has position on you.) Leave the table. Leave now. Go. There are scads of other tables. Find a better one.
But there is a way of improving your chance of winning on your very next online session; regardless of your current poker skill.
You can achieve this amazing result through 'table selection'. Table selection is the practice of being choosy about what tables you play and about where you sit at those tables. Regardless of your poker skill, you can increase your chance of winning through proper table selection.
Rule #1 for Table Selection
Play at tables where the other players are worse than you are. It may sound trite, but it is true regardless of your skill level. You win more often when the people at the table do not play poker as well as you do. The 100th most skilled ring poker player in the world is certainly damn good. But if he sits down at a table with numbers 1 through 9 he is likely in for a bad afternoon. Conversely, a mediocre player is likely to have a pretty good day if he sits a table of people who can not play anywhere near his level.
Things that will help you do this:
1) Play within your bankroll. See all the articles on bankroll management.
2) Regardless of your starting bankroll, do not start higher than the 0.10/0.25 NL tables if you are new to poker.
3) Keep general notes on other players. Avoid sitting at tables with players that have confounded you in the past. Try to sit at tables with players that you have previously noted are worse than you. They are worse than you when you understand what their actions mean. Regardless of your Absolute Poker skill, when you reach the point that you are certain what another player's actions mean, you are better than they are. You want to play against these people.
Rule #2 for Table Selection
Take a seat where the players to your right have money. Money tends to flow clockwise in Texas Hold'em (which is to say that it tends to flow from the earlier positions to the later positions.) for now, accept this principle. You want to pick a seat where you will typically have position on players that have money. Because that money will tend to flow your way.
Rule #3 for Table Selection
Take a seat where the players to your right bet and raise a lot of losing hands (loose). Not only do you want them to have money (rule 2), you want them to be willing to lose it to you.
Rule #4 for Table Selection
Take a seat where the players to your left have very little money. Position, acting after other players, is very important in Texas Hold'em. Again, for now, accept this principle. At a ten man table, you will be the last to act 10% of the time (being the Dealer, or the Button). Imagine playing at a table where the player to your left has 1 penny. Granted, he acts after you do. But his actions are trivial to you because he can only bring one penny into play. He cannot chase you out of a pot with a big bet. You would not mind calling his meaningless All-In, even if you had a speculative hand. At that table, you are effectively last to act when HE is the dealer because no one cares what he does. Sitting with a tiny stack to your left (or better yet two tiny stacks) makes you the last to act 20-30% of the time, instead of everyone elses 10%. There is another great thing about having small stacks to your left. We said above that money tends to flow to the players that have position. The players to your left have position on you but they have no money to bet. On any given hand, they can only get as much money from you as they have in their stack. As they have small stacks, not much of your money will be flowing to them because they cannot make you put a lot of money in the pot, even when they have an outstanding hand and you have a great one that is 2nd best.
Rule #5 for Table Selection
Take a seat where the players to your left will only bet or raise when they have VERY good hands (tight). As mentioned above, position is important. You typically get to see the actions of the people to your right (you have position on them.) But you have to guess what the players to your left are going to do after you act (they have position on you.) By sitting with tight players to your left, you know what they are going to do. They are going to fold unless they have a VERY good hand. If you bet and they raise, then you are likely beat; put no more money in the pot.
Rule #6 for Table Selection
If, while sitting at a table, you discover that it is not the kind of table you want to be at, get up and leave. This may seem trite, but it is one of the primary reasons people lose money at a poker table. They just will not leave the table, even after they realize the table is not right for them. You are not in competition with the table! You are trying to make money playing poker! Perhaps you followed the guidelines above. But 30 minutes later you notice that the players to your right now have very little money, the players to the left now have much larger stacks than you, and that guy that always seems to know what cards you have just sat down to your left (he has position on you.) Leave the table. Leave now. Go. There are scads of other tables. Find a better one.
Making Your Opponent Fold:
A lot of people ask how to make opponents fold so they cannot suck out.
Here is a long story. It will be meaningless to some. To others, it may resonate and really help.
In my 20s and early 30s I practiced an old, particularly brutal martial art. For those who have never practiced a martial art, there is a lot more to it then learning how to hit things. Most of the old ones are complete lifestyles in and of themselves. They teach you how to handle every moment of your life, not just some physical confrontation.
I was at a seminar given by a teacher whom I had trained with several times in the past. He was a good martial artist, but he was an outstanding teacher. Whenever I trained with him I was certain to learn something important.
We were practicing omote-gyaku, a type of wrist lock that twists the hand to the outside, away from the body. A common use of this would be to take an opponent to the ground.
Several of us had practiced the art for years, and had done omote-gyaku drills for many, many hours. Our partner would strike, we would slide to the side getting control of the hand as the strike misses, perform omote-gyaku and take our partner to the ground.
But a lot of people were new to the art. Their partners would strike and they would get control of the hand and try to perform omote-gyaku. But instead of taking the partner to the ground, they would wind up staring face-to-face with their partner while twisting his wrist.
The teacher sees that a lot of people are having trouble and he calls for attention. He calls for a partner and tells the class to pay close attention. The partner strikes, the teacher flawlessly performs omote-gyaku and takes the partner down. He asks, "What happened?"
The class: "Er . . . you did omote-gyaku to him and you made him fall down."
Teacher: "No. Watch again."
And the same thing occurs. The partner strikes, the teacher performs flawless omote-gyaku and down goes the partner.
Teacher: "What happened?"
The class: "Um . . . you did omote-gyaku to him and made him fall down."
Teacher: "No. Watch one more time."
And the same thing occurs.
Teacher: "Anyone?"
The class just fidgets.
Teacher: "I did omote-gyaku to him and he CHOSE to fall down. Because the other CHOICE I gave him was to stand there and let me break his wrist."
The teacher then took a few minutes to describe that the new people were moving the wrist to the outside, but they were not applying sufficient pressure on the wrist. They were just hoping the partner would fall. So they were giving their partner the choice of falling down or standing up and having their wrist lightly twisted. Most just chose to stand there.
The light goes on in the new people's eyes and back they go to practice and, sure enough, they start taking their partners to the ground.
But I and a handful of the other students had been doing this for years. We knew this already (although we could not put it in such words.)
But the lesson was not quite over. The teacher turned to the 6 advanced students and said something which changed my entire approach to life ever since.
Teacher: "No one can MAKE anyone do ANYTHING. All we can ever do is make it easier or harder for people to make certain choices."
And then the light went on in our eyes. How many times in my life have I heard people complain, "How can I make so and so do such and such?" You cannot. All you can do is make it easier for them to make the choice you want them to make and harder for them to make the choice you do not want them to make. But, in the end, the choice will still be theirs to make.
You cannot make someone fold. You can make it harder for them to stay in the hand by forcing them to commit far more chips than it is worth. But, in the end, some will make the choice to stay. By forcing them to commit more chips than it is worth, you will be money-ahead in the long run.
Do your best to properly influence their choices.
Here is a long story. It will be meaningless to some. To others, it may resonate and really help.
In my 20s and early 30s I practiced an old, particularly brutal martial art. For those who have never practiced a martial art, there is a lot more to it then learning how to hit things. Most of the old ones are complete lifestyles in and of themselves. They teach you how to handle every moment of your life, not just some physical confrontation.
I was at a seminar given by a teacher whom I had trained with several times in the past. He was a good martial artist, but he was an outstanding teacher. Whenever I trained with him I was certain to learn something important.
We were practicing omote-gyaku, a type of wrist lock that twists the hand to the outside, away from the body. A common use of this would be to take an opponent to the ground.
Several of us had practiced the art for years, and had done omote-gyaku drills for many, many hours. Our partner would strike, we would slide to the side getting control of the hand as the strike misses, perform omote-gyaku and take our partner to the ground.
But a lot of people were new to the art. Their partners would strike and they would get control of the hand and try to perform omote-gyaku. But instead of taking the partner to the ground, they would wind up staring face-to-face with their partner while twisting his wrist.
The teacher sees that a lot of people are having trouble and he calls for attention. He calls for a partner and tells the class to pay close attention. The partner strikes, the teacher flawlessly performs omote-gyaku and takes the partner down. He asks, "What happened?"
The class: "Er . . . you did omote-gyaku to him and you made him fall down."
Teacher: "No. Watch again."
And the same thing occurs. The partner strikes, the teacher performs flawless omote-gyaku and down goes the partner.
Teacher: "What happened?"
The class: "Um . . . you did omote-gyaku to him and made him fall down."
Teacher: "No. Watch one more time."
And the same thing occurs.
Teacher: "Anyone?"
The class just fidgets.
Teacher: "I did omote-gyaku to him and he CHOSE to fall down. Because the other CHOICE I gave him was to stand there and let me break his wrist."
The teacher then took a few minutes to describe that the new people were moving the wrist to the outside, but they were not applying sufficient pressure on the wrist. They were just hoping the partner would fall. So they were giving their partner the choice of falling down or standing up and having their wrist lightly twisted. Most just chose to stand there.
The light goes on in the new people's eyes and back they go to practice and, sure enough, they start taking their partners to the ground.
But I and a handful of the other students had been doing this for years. We knew this already (although we could not put it in such words.)
But the lesson was not quite over. The teacher turned to the 6 advanced students and said something which changed my entire approach to life ever since.
Teacher: "No one can MAKE anyone do ANYTHING. All we can ever do is make it easier or harder for people to make certain choices."
And then the light went on in our eyes. How many times in my life have I heard people complain, "How can I make so and so do such and such?" You cannot. All you can do is make it easier for them to make the choice you want them to make and harder for them to make the choice you do not want them to make. But, in the end, the choice will still be theirs to make.
You cannot make someone fold. You can make it harder for them to stay in the hand by forcing them to commit far more chips than it is worth. But, in the end, some will make the choice to stay. By forcing them to commit more chips than it is worth, you will be money-ahead in the long run.
Do your best to properly influence their choices.
Winning Money:
Now this is a critical time, it’s very easy to become over confident. Examine your play and ensure you are not getting lucky. When you are making money you need to know why you are making money. Even though you are winning, you should still be examining your hand histories and posting hands in the forum. You might think you have made a great play that you were actually a 4:1 shot to win. You could start winning money with luck going your way (you remember the lucky players who turned $50 into $3000 from part 1 right?). Make sure you know that when you have won a hand, you still played it correctly. You can win poorly played hands and lose hands played perfectly. That’s why poker is such a puzzle.
Once you are routinely doing all this, and are making money consistently (making money is fun!), you have two choices:
Cashouts
Start making small cash outs (Is there something you want to buy that special someone?).
There is a rumour around the net called “the cash out curse”. That is when people win at online poker, make a cash out, and then go on a losing streak. These people think that because they have taken money out of a site, the site has saw fit to punish them. The reality is DingoDave deposited $200, played good poker, and made $600. He’s now moved up in limits with his new and improved bankroll. He then takes out $400. He’s left with $200 now, and thinks to himself, "wow that looks small, I had $600 a minute ago." Sub-consciously he knows he doesn’t have as much money, and starts playing differently. He won’t bet as much to protect his hands, etc. As a result his play has changed from that of a winning player into a losing one.
Also, it’s quite common in poker to have up-swings and down-swings. You may win for 3 days and then, through no fault of your own, lose on day four. As long as your upswings are stronger and more frequent than your downswings, you have nothing to worry about.
If you are going to make a cashout, make it a small one - an amount small enough that will not affect your play when you see your smaller bankroll. Keep repeating this cycle, make small cashouts, slowly let your bankroll grow, and make small cash outs. i.e. - for each $100 you make, cash out $50 and leave the rest in your bankroll.
Build Your Bankroll
This is the option I suggest you take, especially if you started with a smaller bankroll. Building your bankroll will give you more confidence in your play, you know that you can push all in with that AA, and it’s not going to break the bank if you lose. Also, eventually, you will have enough to move up to the next limit. To move up, you want at least twenty buy-ins for the next level. If you are new to playing poker online, I suggest 30 just to be on the safe side. Some level changes are easier than others. If you started at the $5 buy-in tables, the $10 buy in tables won’t have a big diff in skill. However, if you are playing the $25 buy-in tables, the $50 buy-in tables are harder, with more sharks and less fish.
Whichever you decide to do don’t rush ever rush in to moving up in limits. The last thing you want is to have a good run, move up, and have a bad run. Remember, there are a lot of swings in poker. Also - as important as it is to recognise when to move up, it’s equally important to know when to move down. If your bankroll drops down to a level leaving you only 10 buy-ins, it would be a lot safer to drop down to a level that afforded you 20 buy-ins.
Once you are routinely doing all this, and are making money consistently (making money is fun!), you have two choices:
Cashouts
Start making small cash outs (Is there something you want to buy that special someone?).
There is a rumour around the net called “the cash out curse”. That is when people win at online poker, make a cash out, and then go on a losing streak. These people think that because they have taken money out of a site, the site has saw fit to punish them. The reality is DingoDave deposited $200, played good poker, and made $600. He’s now moved up in limits with his new and improved bankroll. He then takes out $400. He’s left with $200 now, and thinks to himself, "wow that looks small, I had $600 a minute ago." Sub-consciously he knows he doesn’t have as much money, and starts playing differently. He won’t bet as much to protect his hands, etc. As a result his play has changed from that of a winning player into a losing one.
Also, it’s quite common in poker to have up-swings and down-swings. You may win for 3 days and then, through no fault of your own, lose on day four. As long as your upswings are stronger and more frequent than your downswings, you have nothing to worry about.
If you are going to make a cashout, make it a small one - an amount small enough that will not affect your play when you see your smaller bankroll. Keep repeating this cycle, make small cashouts, slowly let your bankroll grow, and make small cash outs. i.e. - for each $100 you make, cash out $50 and leave the rest in your bankroll.
Build Your Bankroll
This is the option I suggest you take, especially if you started with a smaller bankroll. Building your bankroll will give you more confidence in your play, you know that you can push all in with that AA, and it’s not going to break the bank if you lose. Also, eventually, you will have enough to move up to the next limit. To move up, you want at least twenty buy-ins for the next level. If you are new to playing poker online, I suggest 30 just to be on the safe side. Some level changes are easier than others. If you started at the $5 buy-in tables, the $10 buy in tables won’t have a big diff in skill. However, if you are playing the $25 buy-in tables, the $50 buy-in tables are harder, with more sharks and less fish.
Whichever you decide to do don’t rush ever rush in to moving up in limits. The last thing you want is to have a good run, move up, and have a bad run. Remember, there are a lot of swings in poker. Also - as important as it is to recognise when to move up, it’s equally important to know when to move down. If your bankroll drops down to a level leaving you only 10 buy-ins, it would be a lot safer to drop down to a level that afforded you 20 buy-ins.
Friday, February 9, 2007
Bad Beats And You: Psychology
You have a pretty looking hand and your opponent has a funny, lopsided looking hand and you're happy to see that all the money goes in the pot. The end.
Everything after that is just an illusion taking your focus away from a truth in poker. You've made the right move, and you'll make money from it. Eventually.
Every time two hands go all in and you're a 90% favorite, you've won 90% of the pot. Write that amount down. It's yours. You just can't spend it until you've played enough hands for luck to even out.
Think about it, you can't win 90% of the pot there even though that's you EV from the hand. You can either win 100% or 0%. Which means, for all things to be right and just in the world, you've got to lose once or twice.
As long as your opponent has outs, he can win. It's not "Some fish: unreal" that they hit their one out, it's poker. That's how the game treats us. If you can't deal with it, you will be a losing player.
This is factor in poker that pisses people off. It drives novice poker players, who think they're the best, crazy. It causes them to tilt and lose more money on horrid play
Bad beat's are supposed to happen. If they never did, online poker would be rigged.
Blaming rigged deals, lame n00bs and horrid luck for something that is going to happen whether you like it or not is hurting your play.
You've got to be able to shake off bad beats and continue to play proper poker so that you can continue to earn 70, 80 and 90% of all the pots you play to the river. If you can't, you'll start earning yourself 25, or 15% of each pot and just tilt yourself further.
So how do you deal with it? It’s easier said then done. I’ve had bad downswings and have titled but that was after nearly a month of consistently getting outdrawn in every big pot.
The Psychology of Losing:
How does knowing "the psychology of losing" help you? You're going to win!! Well, there's psychology there too, but that's for another post. It helps because if you know what subliminal drivers kick in when you lose then you're better prepared to address and combat them, which will decrease your loses. I'm not a psychologist, but I play on online. Enjoy!
Losing is relative. The psychological effects kick in at different times for different people, based on your tolerance and history. Someone with a $1000 bankroll who loses a $5 tournament with a bad beat as an isolated incident won't blink. The same loss to someone else may put them on serious TILT. For instance, if you have a $49 bankroll, that WAS a $100 bankroll and you need to witdraw your money before your wife finds out, but the site won't let you withdraw less than $50, plus this is your 5th "bad beat" in a row, etc. Then it's a mortal lock that psychology will come into play.
The basic psychological and physiological reaction to losing:
Boiled down to it's absolute essence, losing Hurts! Not in an abstract way, but in a very real way. It makes your stomach churn, changes your blood pressure, constricts thousands of muscles and causes physical and mental anguish. Throw emotion on top of that and you have The Psychology of Losing. It's real, we've all felt it, and it's no fun.
So what?
So this... when humans experience pain and discomfort we want to make it GO AWAY!! How do we do that? You're sitting in front of the computer so you click into another game as fast as possible. The best way to make the pain of losing go away is to WIN!! And you want to win as quickly as possible. Add to that the fact that you're still kicking yourself for losing (whether justified or not)... How could you play so smart for 2 hours (at a ring game or MTT for instance) and then implode so quickly? And you have a recipe for disaster.
Your body wants to feel better, your mind wants to prove it's worth, your ego wants to regain it's self-respect. And maybe, you're loses are causing a financial pressure. And it's all relative. You could have started with $100 and grown it to $310 over a few session or weeks of play. Now you're back below $220 and your scared to see that number go below $200 for no real reason other than ego. In reality you're up, but it doesn't feel that way. (Alternately it could cause an ACTUAL financial stress, which is worse). So, all this combines into an unstoppable urge to keep playing. Maybe at higher stakes. If it took you 3 weeks to build that bankroll, you don't want to have to start another 2 week process because you had a bad few hours. So patience and reality go out the window and you increase the stakes to "recover faster". Or start Multi-tabling where you weren't before. When the loss of a single hand triggers this response, then that's what most people see as "going on tilt".
Does any of this sound familiar? If not it's because you're playing with points and not money or have been playing for only 30 minutes. It happens to everyone at every level: Micro, Tournament, High Stakes, etc.
The important thing to understand is that the symptoms you feel when you lose are out of your control. They are as physiological and automatic as your heart beating or sneezing. The other important thing to remember is that good poker play requires PATIENCE, ABSTRACT THINKING, and A NEUTRAL TO POSITIVE OUTLOOK. You will lose money if you are in a hurry, distracted by your own body and worried.
SO WHAT DO YOU DO?
1. KNOW THYSELF. Understand when this kicks in for you. You could lose 5 tournaments in a row, but your expectations are to win 1 out of 6, and you have the bankroll and history that makes it all "normal". This may not kick in until you lose the 6th tournament. Or you may expect to win money 2 days out of 3 playing limit, so it doesn't kick in when you've had a few hours or a day of negative income. But you need to know what your expectations are regarding losing and "know thyself". When you feel the first tinge of physical or emotional response to losing then the affects above are kicking in. The solution is to stop playing until you get yourself back under control (more on that below).
2. KNOW YOUR EXPECTATIONS. (This is a secret to life in and of itself, so take note.) I don't know the secret to happiness, but I DO know the secret to unhappiness. It is UNFULFILLED EXPECTATIONS. You expect your life to "change" and get great when you graduate high school, and then it doesn't. You're unhappy. Why? No reason, everything is fine, you aren't being shipped off to a prison work camp, you have food and friends and activities. But reality didn't meet your expectations and you have Unrealistic Unhappiness. It happens for women post marriage. They expected this married fantasy bliss, and it's not there after about the first month. They get unhappy. Why? They're married! They have a handsome husband, new apartments... etc. Nothing is REALLY wrong, but they have UNFULFILLED EXPECTATIONS. So they are unhappy.
What are your expectations? Are they realistic? Do you expect to lose? You should not expect to always win. Do you expect to be Mr. Poker with only 3 years experience? (yes, it takes a long time to get as good as you expect! 3 years is nothing.) If you're new to poker, you really need to examine your expectations. May I suggest that you expect to pay a "learning tax" and make the most of what you learn. If you break even, or win then it's a Bonus. But, if you put your mind and effort into it, then you will eventually start collecting other players' "learning tax". AS you get better that income increases and you can make good money if you want. Or you can play break-even poker - which is free excitement and entertainment. But, have your expectations match reality. Because if you don't, the PAIN RESPONSE will kick in and you'll "go on tilt" - which is another way of saying you will sucumb to the Psychology of Losing.
The solution to this is to Ajust Your Expectations (more on this below)
How to Do what you need to do to reverse the Psychological Effect of Losing.
There's more that could be said above, but these 2 points are the main points to address in this post. So here are some suggestions and thoughts on how to execute a recovery strategy.
1. Stop Playing
If you can't turn off the computer and walk away then you have a problem. And you should see it as a problem. You don't have to rush off to a 12 step meeting. But if your poker is affecting your life and relationships with others in a negative way, your job, life finances, causing depression, etc. Then you probably should get professional help. Poker isn't that important!!
(If you have this problem then you probably already suspect it and don't want to face it. Let me just say this, and if it sounds like a public service add, then it does. If you acknowledge to yourself that you have a problem and realize that your life and family are more important than the problem, then you will overcome it. You just need some professional help and counselling. You will live the life you want and not a life of cyclical pain and self-destruction. You can have that great life you imagine without poker. Guranteed!)
FOR MOST OF US THOUGH, the problem isn't a life problem. It's an issue of minimizing our losses and increasing our positive poker sessions. So here are some things you can do.
Again, turn off the computer. Call the session done! So you lost?? OK. Accept it. Put it in perspective. Did losing give you cancer? NO! Did it make your wife leave you? NO! Did it cause your beautiful lawn to sprout weeds? NO! OK. There's no Real Damage!! There's no Real Danger... Your body is registering a Danger Response to an imagined danger. Understand and accept it. Physical separation from the stimulus (i.e. the game) will let your body calm down, will let your mind start to digest what happened, and will keep you from blowing the money you have left in a vain and fruitless attempt to "recover". You can't recover the money Right Now. But you can recover yourself right now, by walking away.
Do something else. Something physical is best. It will disperse the physical effects more quickly and occupy your mind. Clean something!!! Yea! That'll also make the wife happy and you'll get satisfaction from that. Imagine how much your wife will LOVE the fact that you play poker if when you win the family gets Money and when you lose the house gets Clean?? That's a win-win!! And it's a win-win for you. When you win money you get warm and fuzzy feelings of power and ego, and when you lose you get SEX!!!
You could also take a walk, mow the grass, clean the gutters, take a drive with the top down (I have a Jeep) or the windows open. Get some fresh air! Play with the kids!! They've been waiting for "Daddy to get off the computer" for 3 hours. They'll love it.
Don't watch a movie or read a book. You'll keep stewing and they aren't as effective as something physical.
What if your loss was late at night? Take a piss (you've been waiting until a break), take a sleeping pill - not the whole bottle haha - and go to bed. Honestly, take a sleeping pill. They aren't addictive, you have work in the morning and you don't need to miss sleep thinking about why you reraised AI with 66 against a reraiser with AA. You'll feel better in the morning.
If you want to play more the same day, then you need to take a good, long, physical break. Do something that will make you feel good about life. Work out! You'll help your health. Go out to eat at a nice restaurant. You'll help your outlook on life. Etc. But, if you aren't 100% relaxed, 100% patient and 100% prepared to play poker the way you know you should and feel you can, then you're not ready to play yet.
What if you're in the Middle of a Tournament?? If you can click "deal me out", recoginize the symptoms and do what you can to dissipate them. Take as long of a break as possible. Recognize that YOU MIGHT LOSE AND THAT'S OK!!! Come to grips with the prospect of losing and decide that it's not the worst thing in the world. Then decide that if you are going to lose it's not going to be because you went on Tilt. You're going to invest your time, skill and energy to the best of your ability until the last hand. If you do lose, you won't feel as bad as if you tilted out!!
Enuf said? Recognize your response to losing is physical and psychological in ways you can't "decide" away or ignore. You have to Do something else.
If you've taken a particularly bad loss or lost your entire bankroll, you may need to take a longer break. Days, weeks, even months. If you have money online it'll still be there 6 weeks later - which is more than can be said if you play on tilt. Take some time to study your play, read a book or two, learn more, change your game. Re-read the book that helped you learn to play well in the first place. Take notes. Poker won't go away during your break. There will probably be 1000 new fish on the site when you return and the shark who spanked you around may have moved to another site or higher stakes. Don't return to playing until you feel you have the skills and mentality you need to win.
2. Adjust Your Expectations
I'm posting this in the beginner's area. If you're a beginner or you haven't "learned poker" then you really need to adjust your expectations. I don't care what limit your playing, there are some players there who have studied poker, know it like the back of their hand, and have been playing for years and years!!! The higher the stakes, generally, the more experienced the players. That's not a bad thing! You are getting your money's worth for your "learning tax".
If you think you have a 6th sense, a "feel for the game", you can "spot weakness" naturally, etc. You don't. I'm being frank. No one does. Those feelings aren't feelings, they are based on experience, study, knowledge and statistical analysis. When all that becomes innate then it looks like "feel". But I doubt any highly successful player will say they have a "natural talent" other than their talent to learn and their experience and commitment to playing good poker. It's easy to feel that way when you're winning. But there's always an element of luck, even playing AA there's luck. You choose this time to go AI and someone calls with KK and you hold up to win. Statistics said you would probably win. But it was LUCKY that someone had 2nd best hand and a willingness to call your AI bet. We increase our chances by learning and experience.
One way to adjust expectations is to keep records. Past history DOES predict future results, all else being equal. Most people don't understand that past records for thousands of hands is required. So they see streaks. But they are just small portions of a correct statistical sampling. Flip a coin 30 times and it may come up heads 20 times. Flip it a million times and the difference between heads and tails will be will within any margin of error. So don't interpret small scale changes as trends. Adjust your expectations. When you haven't played thousands of hands, then HAVE NO EXPECTATIONS!! You're still building your statistical baseline to base any expectations on. You can study your hands and your play against "recommended" play and learn how to play better in the short term. There are plenty of helps regarding that here and elsewhere.
Adjust your monetary expectations. No one WANTS to follow the bankroll management advice on this site and elsewhere. Just understand that if you don't then you're going to see some swings that look scary and can take your entire bankroll. Don't EXPECT to be unique in all the world of Poker. You can't play 50% of your bankroll on any given day and not suffer the natural and unavoidable consequences of that move.
We all see ourselves as unique, special, talented. There's nothing wrong with that, except that when you're talking about Poker you're playing a game of statistics, skill and experience. You can't change statistics. If you change your skill and experience (generally over a long period of time) then you can become unique, special and talented. It's like that saying "ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL, BUT SOME OF US OUTGROW IT".
Do you expect to be able to play 6 hours a day, when your family and other obligations don't allow it? Adjust your expectations!
There are plenty of other "expectations" that need adjusting. Here's the bottom line (in poker and in life). If you are UnHappy, then you need to look at what your expectations Were, what Actually Happened, and either adjust your expectations to match reality or take the action necessary to adjust reality to match your expectations. If you hate your job it's because you expected.... whatever. Either make that happen, adjust your expectations or change jobs. Same with poker.
Knowing where you fit in the poker spectrum when it comes to skill, experience and your chosen game/limits, will also help you understand and deal with losses. They will also help you know when, where and how you need to improve. If that's your goal then losing is a positive. If you didn't lose how else would you know your weaknesses and know where to spend your energy.
Can you turn a loss into a positive experience? I do it all the time. I'll be heads up in a tourney and have my hat handed to me by a skilled player = more skilled than me by a mile. I'll watch everything he does and learn. I'll make notes. I'll replay it in my mind. I'll add his tricks to my bag and be grateful for the experience. Let's say I don't make it in the money and the same thing happens (that's losing), I'll do the same thing.
SUMMARY
1. Not every loss activates the Psychology of Losing reaction. Know what triggers it with you and learn to recognize the symptoms.
2. Adjust your play to reduce the opportunity for this loss reaction to happen often (if possible)
3. When it happens, recognize it and take steps to dissipate it. If you're in the middle of a tournament and can't just turn off then adjust your expectations very quickly, take a few hands off, and recover the best you can. You may lose anyway, but you'll give yourself a better shot than you would have had otherwise.
4. If poker affects your family, life, finances in a serious way then get professional help.
5. Physical loss reactions require physical actions to clear up. Stop playing and do something else.
6. Know your game, know your circumstances and adjust your expectations to match.
Finally, if you're not having fun over the long run, then why do it? If you love playing poker, life's too short to deny yourself that excitment. And if it just seems like a constanst struggle with no upside, then life's too short to waste your time doing it!!
Good luck and happy playing!
Everything after that is just an illusion taking your focus away from a truth in poker. You've made the right move, and you'll make money from it. Eventually.
Every time two hands go all in and you're a 90% favorite, you've won 90% of the pot. Write that amount down. It's yours. You just can't spend it until you've played enough hands for luck to even out.
Think about it, you can't win 90% of the pot there even though that's you EV from the hand. You can either win 100% or 0%. Which means, for all things to be right and just in the world, you've got to lose once or twice.
As long as your opponent has outs, he can win. It's not "Some fish: unreal" that they hit their one out, it's poker. That's how the game treats us. If you can't deal with it, you will be a losing player.
This is factor in poker that pisses people off. It drives novice poker players, who think they're the best, crazy. It causes them to tilt and lose more money on horrid play
Bad beat's are supposed to happen. If they never did, online poker would be rigged.
Blaming rigged deals, lame n00bs and horrid luck for something that is going to happen whether you like it or not is hurting your play.
You've got to be able to shake off bad beats and continue to play proper poker so that you can continue to earn 70, 80 and 90% of all the pots you play to the river. If you can't, you'll start earning yourself 25, or 15% of each pot and just tilt yourself further.
So how do you deal with it? It’s easier said then done. I’ve had bad downswings and have titled but that was after nearly a month of consistently getting outdrawn in every big pot.
The Psychology of Losing:
How does knowing "the psychology of losing" help you? You're going to win!! Well, there's psychology there too, but that's for another post. It helps because if you know what subliminal drivers kick in when you lose then you're better prepared to address and combat them, which will decrease your loses. I'm not a psychologist, but I play on online. Enjoy!
Losing is relative. The psychological effects kick in at different times for different people, based on your tolerance and history. Someone with a $1000 bankroll who loses a $5 tournament with a bad beat as an isolated incident won't blink. The same loss to someone else may put them on serious TILT. For instance, if you have a $49 bankroll, that WAS a $100 bankroll and you need to witdraw your money before your wife finds out, but the site won't let you withdraw less than $50, plus this is your 5th "bad beat" in a row, etc. Then it's a mortal lock that psychology will come into play.
The basic psychological and physiological reaction to losing:
Boiled down to it's absolute essence, losing Hurts! Not in an abstract way, but in a very real way. It makes your stomach churn, changes your blood pressure, constricts thousands of muscles and causes physical and mental anguish. Throw emotion on top of that and you have The Psychology of Losing. It's real, we've all felt it, and it's no fun.
So what?
So this... when humans experience pain and discomfort we want to make it GO AWAY!! How do we do that? You're sitting in front of the computer so you click into another game as fast as possible. The best way to make the pain of losing go away is to WIN!! And you want to win as quickly as possible. Add to that the fact that you're still kicking yourself for losing (whether justified or not)... How could you play so smart for 2 hours (at a ring game or MTT for instance) and then implode so quickly? And you have a recipe for disaster.
Your body wants to feel better, your mind wants to prove it's worth, your ego wants to regain it's self-respect. And maybe, you're loses are causing a financial pressure. And it's all relative. You could have started with $100 and grown it to $310 over a few session or weeks of play. Now you're back below $220 and your scared to see that number go below $200 for no real reason other than ego. In reality you're up, but it doesn't feel that way. (Alternately it could cause an ACTUAL financial stress, which is worse). So, all this combines into an unstoppable urge to keep playing. Maybe at higher stakes. If it took you 3 weeks to build that bankroll, you don't want to have to start another 2 week process because you had a bad few hours. So patience and reality go out the window and you increase the stakes to "recover faster". Or start Multi-tabling where you weren't before. When the loss of a single hand triggers this response, then that's what most people see as "going on tilt".
Does any of this sound familiar? If not it's because you're playing with points and not money or have been playing for only 30 minutes. It happens to everyone at every level: Micro, Tournament, High Stakes, etc.
The important thing to understand is that the symptoms you feel when you lose are out of your control. They are as physiological and automatic as your heart beating or sneezing. The other important thing to remember is that good poker play requires PATIENCE, ABSTRACT THINKING, and A NEUTRAL TO POSITIVE OUTLOOK. You will lose money if you are in a hurry, distracted by your own body and worried.
SO WHAT DO YOU DO?
1. KNOW THYSELF. Understand when this kicks in for you. You could lose 5 tournaments in a row, but your expectations are to win 1 out of 6, and you have the bankroll and history that makes it all "normal". This may not kick in until you lose the 6th tournament. Or you may expect to win money 2 days out of 3 playing limit, so it doesn't kick in when you've had a few hours or a day of negative income. But you need to know what your expectations are regarding losing and "know thyself". When you feel the first tinge of physical or emotional response to losing then the affects above are kicking in. The solution is to stop playing until you get yourself back under control (more on that below).
2. KNOW YOUR EXPECTATIONS. (This is a secret to life in and of itself, so take note.) I don't know the secret to happiness, but I DO know the secret to unhappiness. It is UNFULFILLED EXPECTATIONS. You expect your life to "change" and get great when you graduate high school, and then it doesn't. You're unhappy. Why? No reason, everything is fine, you aren't being shipped off to a prison work camp, you have food and friends and activities. But reality didn't meet your expectations and you have Unrealistic Unhappiness. It happens for women post marriage. They expected this married fantasy bliss, and it's not there after about the first month. They get unhappy. Why? They're married! They have a handsome husband, new apartments... etc. Nothing is REALLY wrong, but they have UNFULFILLED EXPECTATIONS. So they are unhappy.
What are your expectations? Are they realistic? Do you expect to lose? You should not expect to always win. Do you expect to be Mr. Poker with only 3 years experience? (yes, it takes a long time to get as good as you expect! 3 years is nothing.) If you're new to poker, you really need to examine your expectations. May I suggest that you expect to pay a "learning tax" and make the most of what you learn. If you break even, or win then it's a Bonus. But, if you put your mind and effort into it, then you will eventually start collecting other players' "learning tax". AS you get better that income increases and you can make good money if you want. Or you can play break-even poker - which is free excitement and entertainment. But, have your expectations match reality. Because if you don't, the PAIN RESPONSE will kick in and you'll "go on tilt" - which is another way of saying you will sucumb to the Psychology of Losing.
The solution to this is to Ajust Your Expectations (more on this below)
How to Do what you need to do to reverse the Psychological Effect of Losing.
There's more that could be said above, but these 2 points are the main points to address in this post. So here are some suggestions and thoughts on how to execute a recovery strategy.
1. Stop Playing
If you can't turn off the computer and walk away then you have a problem. And you should see it as a problem. You don't have to rush off to a 12 step meeting. But if your poker is affecting your life and relationships with others in a negative way, your job, life finances, causing depression, etc. Then you probably should get professional help. Poker isn't that important!!
(If you have this problem then you probably already suspect it and don't want to face it. Let me just say this, and if it sounds like a public service add, then it does. If you acknowledge to yourself that you have a problem and realize that your life and family are more important than the problem, then you will overcome it. You just need some professional help and counselling. You will live the life you want and not a life of cyclical pain and self-destruction. You can have that great life you imagine without poker. Guranteed!)
FOR MOST OF US THOUGH, the problem isn't a life problem. It's an issue of minimizing our losses and increasing our positive poker sessions. So here are some things you can do.
Again, turn off the computer. Call the session done! So you lost?? OK. Accept it. Put it in perspective. Did losing give you cancer? NO! Did it make your wife leave you? NO! Did it cause your beautiful lawn to sprout weeds? NO! OK. There's no Real Damage!! There's no Real Danger... Your body is registering a Danger Response to an imagined danger. Understand and accept it. Physical separation from the stimulus (i.e. the game) will let your body calm down, will let your mind start to digest what happened, and will keep you from blowing the money you have left in a vain and fruitless attempt to "recover". You can't recover the money Right Now. But you can recover yourself right now, by walking away.
Do something else. Something physical is best. It will disperse the physical effects more quickly and occupy your mind. Clean something!!! Yea! That'll also make the wife happy and you'll get satisfaction from that. Imagine how much your wife will LOVE the fact that you play poker if when you win the family gets Money and when you lose the house gets Clean?? That's a win-win!! And it's a win-win for you. When you win money you get warm and fuzzy feelings of power and ego, and when you lose you get SEX!!!
You could also take a walk, mow the grass, clean the gutters, take a drive with the top down (I have a Jeep) or the windows open. Get some fresh air! Play with the kids!! They've been waiting for "Daddy to get off the computer" for 3 hours. They'll love it.
Don't watch a movie or read a book. You'll keep stewing and they aren't as effective as something physical.
What if your loss was late at night? Take a piss (you've been waiting until a break), take a sleeping pill - not the whole bottle haha - and go to bed. Honestly, take a sleeping pill. They aren't addictive, you have work in the morning and you don't need to miss sleep thinking about why you reraised AI with 66 against a reraiser with AA. You'll feel better in the morning.
If you want to play more the same day, then you need to take a good, long, physical break. Do something that will make you feel good about life. Work out! You'll help your health. Go out to eat at a nice restaurant. You'll help your outlook on life. Etc. But, if you aren't 100% relaxed, 100% patient and 100% prepared to play poker the way you know you should and feel you can, then you're not ready to play yet.
What if you're in the Middle of a Tournament?? If you can click "deal me out", recoginize the symptoms and do what you can to dissipate them. Take as long of a break as possible. Recognize that YOU MIGHT LOSE AND THAT'S OK!!! Come to grips with the prospect of losing and decide that it's not the worst thing in the world. Then decide that if you are going to lose it's not going to be because you went on Tilt. You're going to invest your time, skill and energy to the best of your ability until the last hand. If you do lose, you won't feel as bad as if you tilted out!!
Enuf said? Recognize your response to losing is physical and psychological in ways you can't "decide" away or ignore. You have to Do something else.
If you've taken a particularly bad loss or lost your entire bankroll, you may need to take a longer break. Days, weeks, even months. If you have money online it'll still be there 6 weeks later - which is more than can be said if you play on tilt. Take some time to study your play, read a book or two, learn more, change your game. Re-read the book that helped you learn to play well in the first place. Take notes. Poker won't go away during your break. There will probably be 1000 new fish on the site when you return and the shark who spanked you around may have moved to another site or higher stakes. Don't return to playing until you feel you have the skills and mentality you need to win.
2. Adjust Your Expectations
I'm posting this in the beginner's area. If you're a beginner or you haven't "learned poker" then you really need to adjust your expectations. I don't care what limit your playing, there are some players there who have studied poker, know it like the back of their hand, and have been playing for years and years!!! The higher the stakes, generally, the more experienced the players. That's not a bad thing! You are getting your money's worth for your "learning tax".
If you think you have a 6th sense, a "feel for the game", you can "spot weakness" naturally, etc. You don't. I'm being frank. No one does. Those feelings aren't feelings, they are based on experience, study, knowledge and statistical analysis. When all that becomes innate then it looks like "feel". But I doubt any highly successful player will say they have a "natural talent" other than their talent to learn and their experience and commitment to playing good poker. It's easy to feel that way when you're winning. But there's always an element of luck, even playing AA there's luck. You choose this time to go AI and someone calls with KK and you hold up to win. Statistics said you would probably win. But it was LUCKY that someone had 2nd best hand and a willingness to call your AI bet. We increase our chances by learning and experience.
One way to adjust expectations is to keep records. Past history DOES predict future results, all else being equal. Most people don't understand that past records for thousands of hands is required. So they see streaks. But they are just small portions of a correct statistical sampling. Flip a coin 30 times and it may come up heads 20 times. Flip it a million times and the difference between heads and tails will be will within any margin of error. So don't interpret small scale changes as trends. Adjust your expectations. When you haven't played thousands of hands, then HAVE NO EXPECTATIONS!! You're still building your statistical baseline to base any expectations on. You can study your hands and your play against "recommended" play and learn how to play better in the short term. There are plenty of helps regarding that here and elsewhere.
Adjust your monetary expectations. No one WANTS to follow the bankroll management advice on this site and elsewhere. Just understand that if you don't then you're going to see some swings that look scary and can take your entire bankroll. Don't EXPECT to be unique in all the world of Poker. You can't play 50% of your bankroll on any given day and not suffer the natural and unavoidable consequences of that move.
We all see ourselves as unique, special, talented. There's nothing wrong with that, except that when you're talking about Poker you're playing a game of statistics, skill and experience. You can't change statistics. If you change your skill and experience (generally over a long period of time) then you can become unique, special and talented. It's like that saying "ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL, BUT SOME OF US OUTGROW IT".
Do you expect to be able to play 6 hours a day, when your family and other obligations don't allow it? Adjust your expectations!
There are plenty of other "expectations" that need adjusting. Here's the bottom line (in poker and in life). If you are UnHappy, then you need to look at what your expectations Were, what Actually Happened, and either adjust your expectations to match reality or take the action necessary to adjust reality to match your expectations. If you hate your job it's because you expected.... whatever. Either make that happen, adjust your expectations or change jobs. Same with poker.
Knowing where you fit in the poker spectrum when it comes to skill, experience and your chosen game/limits, will also help you understand and deal with losses. They will also help you know when, where and how you need to improve. If that's your goal then losing is a positive. If you didn't lose how else would you know your weaknesses and know where to spend your energy.
Can you turn a loss into a positive experience? I do it all the time. I'll be heads up in a tourney and have my hat handed to me by a skilled player = more skilled than me by a mile. I'll watch everything he does and learn. I'll make notes. I'll replay it in my mind. I'll add his tricks to my bag and be grateful for the experience. Let's say I don't make it in the money and the same thing happens (that's losing), I'll do the same thing.
SUMMARY
1. Not every loss activates the Psychology of Losing reaction. Know what triggers it with you and learn to recognize the symptoms.
2. Adjust your play to reduce the opportunity for this loss reaction to happen often (if possible)
3. When it happens, recognize it and take steps to dissipate it. If you're in the middle of a tournament and can't just turn off then adjust your expectations very quickly, take a few hands off, and recover the best you can. You may lose anyway, but you'll give yourself a better shot than you would have had otherwise.
4. If poker affects your family, life, finances in a serious way then get professional help.
5. Physical loss reactions require physical actions to clear up. Stop playing and do something else.
6. Know your game, know your circumstances and adjust your expectations to match.
Finally, if you're not having fun over the long run, then why do it? If you love playing poker, life's too short to deny yourself that excitment. And if it just seems like a constanst struggle with no upside, then life's too short to waste your time doing it!!
Good luck and happy playing!
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