How to avoid frustration in poker
Losses can’t be avoided in poker. It can be controlled by good bankroll management. The same thing is true about emotions. The emotions will go up and down during poker session, but you must stop it from going berserk.
Anger and demoralization
A big loss can result in feelings of anger and demoralization. Some smashing the keyboard into pieces others promise themselves to never play poker again. These are natural reactions on setbacks, but the strong rise after being beating down.
The point is not to flush as much money as possible down the toilet – if you seem to lose much more than you win you really should consider stop playing or at least move down in limits. But if you have potential to win, you must learn to tackle the bad days.
A pause can be needed. It gives to time to analyze what was going wrong and calm down emotionally. When back at the game again you have probably learned something from the latest downswing and are better preferred mentally.
What is your reason for playing?
Are you playing because you really need money? Because you are unemployed and want to prove that you can succeed in this game?
In these cases, there is a risk that you don’t have the patience that are necessary in poker and that your life conditions make you emotionally vulnerable for disappointments. A success comes normally from continuity – you must go through lots of bad days to reach a final good result.
It is important to understand that although a single session didn’t result in money, you still may have been a winner. As long as your EV are positive, you win in the long run. You must be able to wait for this and avoid let the results frustrate you too much.
Don’t let bad poker results make your life bad
To live and breathe poker is not bad in the sense that you probably will develop fast, but on the negative side that you also might experience setback more emotional.
There is not always heathy to focus too much on your result and poker as a game. It’s important to keep other interest on the side that sometimes can distract you from poker.
Bad results in poker are inevitable, therefore, its important that that don’t drag you down too much.
Related articles: