October 2008 Newsletter

Dear Rick,

I have just had the day from hell at the tables and I was wondering how do you deal with it. I have been outdrawn every way imaginable and some unimaginable. I have had A high flushes, straights and even pocket aces, which made a set on the flop, beaten by someone making quad 8s on the river. Does this happen to everyone or am I just really unlucky?

Regards
Bryan

------------

Bryan,

It happens to most of us, occasionally. Fortunately, it only happens occasionally - otherwise we'd lose our mind (also known as "tilt"), consider quitting poker, or something else equally non-linear as a response.

I was in Tunica earlier this year and there was this "snake-bitten" guy who claimed to have been beaten by quads three times in as many days (against his flushes and boats). He was playing VERY erratic - on some kind of major "snake bit tilt" ... and he continued to lose. He just continued ranting about how it just wasn't statistically possible for quads to come up that often... it was as if he was in a zombie-like tilt-trance or something. Worse yet, he was drinking and seemed strung out from too much partying...

This guy isn't typical, but his extreme allergic reaction to his losing streak is illustrative of what can happen with a total absence of self-discipline in poker.

Once we allow poker to impact us emotionally and we've taken a series of bad beats personally, it's time to just stop, take a break, go fishing, go shopping, watch TV, or do something we enjoy - to unwind and recover emotionally. It's easy to say "just shrug it off", but it's often hard to actually do in practice.

For me, it helps to just rationalize the situation like this:

1. I was playing my best poker and they got lucky and outdrew me - that's just poker variability;

2. If it weren't for those few lucky draws they made, I would've been up for the session - that's poker;

3. The fish have to get lucky enough to keep them coming back to hand me all their money;

The above 3 items assume I actually was playing top-notch poker. If I made mistakes, then I focus my attention on what I did wrong and how to fill in that hole in my game and avoid making the same mistake in similar situations in the future.

In our snake-bitten guy's case, it appeared he probably went onto tilt early after he arrived in Tunica, due to his first bad beat (possibly compounded by the alcohol impacts - by the way, alcohol is like "firewater" to some of us, causing erratic, unconstrained emotional behavior and poor judgment - not good at the poker table). His was regularly playing high-risk poker, chasing most every draw that presented itself, playing starting hands he should've folded, and ignoring the signals of strength being communicated by his opponents. He was doomed to run into a lot of bad beats, due to his lack of attention to what was actually happening in the game, and his bull-headed, "get even" attitude. Anytime we try to "force" things in poker, we're in for a rough ride...

Over the years, I've learned ATTITUDE is a much bigger part of this game than I originally realized. How we allow our minds to process what happens to us during the game can have an enormous impact on our state of mind. Once our state of mind has been negatively impacted, there's a tendency to want to "get even". As soon as we feel that way, it affects our good poker judgment, causes us to take bigger risks, like chasing more draws, playing looser and more aggressively trying to force things. This impact on our decision-making is the real killer. Good players recognize this overly-aggressive, reckless play and will take full advantage of it.

It's critical not to take bad beats personally - because it's really not personal - it's just poker. The cards are random - they really are! When we run into some unlucky draws, it's just the luck of the draw - nothing more (again, if we're playing good poker). Of course, you can get into way too many bad beat situations by playing "risky poker" - chasing draws when you shouldn't be, calling instead of raising, calling instead of folding when you should, being stubborn instead of respecting your opponents' raise, etc.

Another big factor at play here is bankroll management. If you're playing within your bankroll limits properly (not playing in games above your 30 to 40 X bankroll limit), then the emotional impact is much less, because the financial impact relative to your bankroll is much less (like one losing session is just 1/30th or 1/40th of your poker bankroll - no biggie).

When we "cheat on our bankroll" by playing above our roll's natural limits, the impact of each loss is so much greater and it takes a more significant toll on us emotionally. Those kind of losses stick with us and eat at us much more, and if we're not really careful, we can end up strung out on tilt.

So, learning to process bad beats, shaking it off and focusing on playing our best poker is key. Playing within our bankroll limits is critical. Keeping a winner's attitude is a by-product of self-discipline - keeping our focus where it should be - playing our best poker, having fun at the game we love and rolling with the punches that are inevitable in the intensely competitive game of poker.

Hope that's helpful (and your luck will improve, so hang in there).

Keep swinging!

Rick