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Running Bad - How To Deal With Poker Losses
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Author: Marc Weinberg
It's been a bad week with a series of losing poker sessions and a repugnant mixture of weak cards and poor play. The poor play is what lingers, but the practical reality of doing this for a living is that your shrinking bankroll is the botom line.
If this was merely a theoretical course offered while at University I would be more interested in dissecting my play, comforting myself with the good decision making "process" and not worrying about the outcomes. But playing poker has to pay bills and so the bankroll is of imperative importance. There have been a number of times in tournaments where I have made a weak play or a lucky play, survived by sucking out, and gone on to win it all. Trust me when I tell you that the bad play is not remembered at that point.
But the issue here is that I have played badly, and that my results have been poor as well. When you run bad your instinct is to press. The cards aren't coming, or when they do come they get cracked. So, your natural response is to live on the edge of poker sanity and take chances with mediocre hands. Your good hands lose, which nullifies your table image so you try to get some purchase by throwing in a healthy raise on the button with 9T off-suit.
This is the kind of play you should only make when you are already dominating and up. If you make this play when you are down it can only lead to disaster. If you're called down and somehow manage to win the table will be encouaged to attack you relentlessly, and they'd have every right to think that way. You don't start off at a poker table with your resume by your side. No one cares that you played very well in October and won a couple of big tourneys. They see a guy playing badly and about to steam, and they punish accordingly.
Remember this if you can: poker is a game of very small edges. If you're 60% to win a hand you consider yourself a big favorite, but the reality is that you wil lose a lot of times, and when the streaks are going against you the 40% comes in rushes.
Because poker is a game of small advantages that are statistically meaningful only in terms of large samples AND because poker is a game of streaks, where for whatever reason Player A can hold QQ and knock out AT, and then the very next hand the same Player gets AT and calls QQ all-in and wins that as well, you must be prepared for volatile fluctuations.
Great players suffer through losing YEARS, never mind losing weeks or months. Your bankroll must be large enough to deal with those losses. So, if you're down and your confidence is understandably low, why not take a break? When you do come back play a smaller game, and try to work through the weaknesses in your game.
The hardest part of professional poker is bringing your best game to the table every day. It requires tremendous concentration, discipline, self-belief, and some good fortune as well. This is a game that rewards a mature outlook - yet another reason why kids in college should finish college and sample life before they decide to make a living from poker. Gawd, I am starting to sound so bloody old that it is frightening, but you get the picture...
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