Dealing With Poker Bad Beats and Tilt

Dealing With Poker Bad Beats and Tilt

Posted on 09. Apr, 2011 by Johnny Cashout in No-Limit Cash Strategies

Poker Tilt, Bad BeatsLet’s face it, we all have faced our series of cold runs and bad beats.  (if you are sitting there thinking that you haven’t, then you are seriously in some trouble.  Continue reading below to find out why.. O.o).  It is part of the game.  How you respond afterward is what defines you as either a good and stable poker player or a poor short-term fish.

Dealing with bad beats is one of the most important and overlooked aspects of winning online poker.  Regardless of any “flawless” poker strategy you may think you have or however many online poker tips you have, you will in fact, undoubtedly, be faced with ridiculous calls, all-ins, raises…and ultimately lose.

Let’s take a step back and think about how to correctly handle the situation.  We all know that tilting is a bad idea, especially when we are dealing with real money.  Sometimes we just can’t help ourselves to make a few stupid plays after such coolers.  However, there are a few things we can do  beforehand to perhaps preemptively eliminate or mitigate some of the damage we will do to our bankrolls.

Before we hop onto that emotional rollercoaster of poker variance, we can set in place a couple poker factors that will really help us control our temper.  These factors include implementing and understanding the following:

  • Bankroll Management – If we properly set an appropriate bankroll management system for the stake level we decide to play at, then this will help us from becoming one of those sorry fish / donks out there that lose their entire roll in one night.  Any successful long-term online poker grinder will tell you that it’s impossible for them to lose everything overnight.  It just doesn’t make any sense to do so and it is certainly not worth the risk.  If you can drop the ego for a second and label yourself as a potential tilter, then make sure you play with a conservative bankroll management.  (That means play tables where you have at least 40+ max buyins).
  • Poker Statistics? Odds? +/- Expected Value? – Let’s think about what constitutes a bad-beat.  You have your opponent dominated and should end up winning the pot, but the villain lucks out at the end. It’s understandable to be mad about this, but if we run through the statistics and odds of the same exact situation 100 times…chances are we will definitely come out on top unless you are playing the luckiest poker player or cheater in the world.  Getting Bad beat is actually a sign that you are doing things correctly.  If you were playing horribly and making the worse calls then you would experience less bad beats..which is BAD.  At least when we get bad-beat we know that we are playing +Expected Value and getting our money in at the right times.  Remember: Better Players get bad-beat more often then worse players.  Take it as a mental slap in the face that you are playing correctly still.  The odds AND profits will be on your side in the future!
  • Patience, Discipline, RELAX – If you are a serious online poker grinder trying to play for a living, then you already know the amount of emotional toll and stress poker can have in your life.  If you let bad poker sessions / runs control or affect your life outside of poker then you definitely need to take a few HUGE steps back.  Reconsider your lifestyle.  You are doing something wrong: try playing smaller stakes or even taking a break away from poker.  It is easier said than done, but making money with online poker is a very long, tedious process that includes nights of winning AND losing.  Understand the statistical theory behind the business and react appropriately.  If you don’t have the emotional stability to remain indifferent throughout the game then you should not be playing it.  There is way too much variability in poker for those that can be easily affected emotionally.  Most hit the learning curve hard by losing way more than they should after their decision making is clouded by their emotional attachment..don’t be one of those people !

U5GPFSRPDTJ3

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed for future online poker strategy updates!

Related Posts:

Tags: , , , , , ,

Leave a Reply

CommentLuv Enabled