Dealing with losses in poker - PokerTraining.org

Dealing with losses in poker
It's all part of the game - deal with it!

to go through phases when they are losing money. Poker is a game of swings and your next down-swing is right behind the corner when everything looks to work perfectly for you! The key to being an above average player is to maximize your winnings when your cards are great and minimize your losses when everything seems to go wrong.

2)   Stop whining!

It´s funny how often some players use the phrase “bad beat” or “suck-out” even when they weren´t ahead by much. You went all-in with AK and 98 did in fact beat you? Well, that´s not a bad beat, despite the fact that you held a great hand, you were only ahead by around 60-40 % which is much closer to being 50-50 than to being a sure thing. Even with AA you´re not invincible! You´re the heavy favorite against every other hand, but you´re not invincible. Usually you´re ahead by 80-20 % when holding the “pocket rockets” meaning that you´re going to lose with that hand in one out of five times. What I want to express is that whining about losing an important hand won´t help you to play better in the future and only turns away your attention from playing solid, tight-aggressive Poker. Check the probabilities for those major hands and get used to the fact that you cannot win them all. I once lost three times in a row with AQ against AQ, now that´s what I call a bad beat.

3)   Check your style of playing from time to time!

Let´s face it, when time goes by, you fall back into your natural habits whether we´re talking about Poker or other things in life. When you´re on a down-swing you should take your time and evaluate your game a little bit more. Perhaps you went away from the starting hands chart and play way too many hands. Maybe you didn´t stick to the concept of using odds and outs in order to determine whether you should call a certain hand. Or you possibly didn´t pay much attention to your opponents on the table leading you to making false conclusions. When being on a down-swing, take your time, assess your game, regroup and come back stronger than before.

4)   Don´t do anything crazy!

I don´t know why some people keep doing that sort of stuff, however certain players have a tendency to cope with losses by making weird decisions. First and foremost, if you want to change your style a little bit, go for it! But in case you decide to do so, base your decision on observations independent of your actual results. To be a little more precise, drastically switching your style, the game or the level you play on as a response to a period of losses will do you more harm than good. If you want to switch to another ring-game table playing the same game on the same level, that´s totally OK.

But if you lost a huge chunk of your bankroll in NLHE, don´t switch to limit HE or other games like Omaha or Razz without proper preparation.

If you lost money on a certain level, move down instead of moving up! You won´t recoup your losses, you will increase them in case you play against tougher competition!

Just because the crazy maniac on the table enjoyed some short-term success doesn´t mean that you should resemble his style of playing!

And finally, don´t be scared to play aggressively! I once helped a player from Australia to improve his game and I witnessed that he was not pushing enough even with strong hands like trips when he probably was clearly ahead. His response was that he suffered from so many bad beats on the river over the last couple of months that he preferred to not bet at all in order to lose less money. As I said, don´t be scared to be aggressive, especially in scenarios when you have to protect your hand against potential draws.

5)   When nothing seems to work, just leave!

We all know that situation: Everything goes wrong, some guys call your raise with AA or KK with 63, beat you and then tell you something like they had to call because their hand was suited. When you start to get the feeling that playing isn´t fun anymore, when you´re steadily getting pissed about certain developments, do yourself a big favor and just leave the table (but finish your tournaments). Don´t care about potential losses, close the software and do something else. If you want to stick to something Poker related, read some articles, check your charts and evaluate your game but don´t risk any more of your funds when you´re not feeling good. Some guys don´t want to get up from a table until they recouped all of their losses but that´s completely moronic. Those are the kind of players that keep buying in despite losing and losing, players anybody else would want to play against. Don´t be that player!

6)   You´re not the sheriff on the table!

Assuming you´re not as desperate as being described in 5) you´re often confronted with opponents beating you despite making bad decisions and playing in crazy fashion. The table is not Dodge City and you´re not the new sheriff in town, so don´t act like that. Some players have the tendency of trying to punish the table maniac by getting involved in as many hands as possible with him. Let me tell you that is not going to work. Pick your spots against maniacs and exploit their weaknesses but don´t go crazy yourself.

Next, don´t try to tell them how bad they are via the chat function! Seriously, why would you do that? Most of those guys are crazy anyway when it comes to Poker, so what sense does it make to start a discussion with a mad dog anyway? And why should you try to improve your opponent´s game? That makes no sense to me.

If you easily get mad about certain things, simply turn off your chat function, insulting your opponent only takes your focus away from playing. Additionally, make sure you take notes about the moves of your weird opponent so that you are prepared in case you two meet again on the tables in order to get him the next time.

7)   Find the balance between caring and caring too much!

Players that are poor Poker players usually don´t care enough about their money, their bankroll or their performance. All they want to have is fun and they think that getting involved in as many hands as possible is indeed the way to play. But do you know what´s really funny about that? Those guys typically don´t understand why they are losing instead of winning. What I want to express is, that you have to care about your performance, your bankroll and your money. It doesn´t matter if we are talking about bonus money, money you´ve won before or your hard earned money you deposited; you have to care about it in order to build up your bankroll and start to prosper from playing Poker! On the other hand, a lot of guys care too much about their short-term results. If you cannot accept that you´re going to lose some tough decisions, that some of your opponents will beat you simply because they are lucky, then you have a serious problem because you will be distracted more often and you´ll be prone to being “on tilt” more often. Losses are part of the game and you have to accept that you cannot win every decision even if you didn´t commit a mistake.

To me there are two main reasons why people care too much. At first, they risk too much of their money. If you don´t risk much money, a short-term bump in the road won´t distract you too much. Basically stick to our bankroll management guide in order to decrease your chances going broke. Second, people don´t play enough hands. When you only play limited hands, you won´t see as many good hands as if you were multi-tabling and the result is that you care too much about a single hand because you fear that you won´t see such a hand again for a long, long time. If you multi-table, you will see more quality hands, helping you to stay patient and relaxed.

Don´t get me wrong, I get angry, too when I lose a tough decision. But that´s Poker! Laugh about it, take your notes, shrug it off and continue playing, but don´t get mad about it!

8)   Take pride in your game, not in your earnings!

To finish this article off, let me give you a final advice. Don´t think about money when you assess your game at the end of the day, think about your game itself. Poker is a game largely influenced by chance in the short-term leading to situations where you made the right decision but still lost in the end. When assessing a single Poker session, don´t look for the money you earned or lost, look for the decisions you made. If you made correct decisions, you might have lost money in the short-term but you will increase your winnings long-term and vice versa.

In order to get your game to a high level and in order to keep it there it´s especially important that you evaluate it from time to time! Whether you´re losing or not doesn´t matter as you can always find ways to improve your decision-making while still having fun so check our site as we´ll provide you with a program that´ll help you whether you´re experienced or new to the game.

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