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.
Build a high tolerance for setbacks
Poker will undoubtedly test you mentally and players with a low mental threshold will experience what is known in poker as tilt, which means they become frustrated and play more recklessly.
Mental pain threshold is just another term for self-control. Having self-control is extremely important in poker because you will regularly encounter situations where you experience bad luck. Bad luck will eventually turn into good luck, but a player with poor self-control will become desperate and lose more instead of waiting it out.
You need a high tolerance for setbacks. You cannot aim to win every day – poker must be played with a long-term mindset – and it is important to manage losing days.
There are different ways to handle the mental aspects of poker and the situations when money is lost. you can set a maximum loss limit for the day and always stop playing if you reach it. This can be an effective method since they can return the next day feeling refreshed, hopefully free from frustration.
The tolerance for setbacks varies from person to person. Some people lose their temper quickly, while others display self-restraint. If you belong to the former category, you should avoid playing for large sums of money until you gain experience and better understand that periods of bad luck are part of the game.
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.
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