Control in poker

With a site named like this one, you would expect that the subject of control in poker would come up sooner or later.

Well, here it is. The whole subject of ‘control’ can have many different meanings in the world of poker, but for this post the meaning is ‘controlling your emotions’.

It is very easy to write advice on this subject – advice like ‘don’t go on tilt’ is easy to say but not so easy to put into practice.

The best start to controlling your emotions in poker is to recognize when you should NOT be playing in the first place. Many players that play for fun use poker as method of stress relief. After a bad day at work, or just in general, a game of poker can seem like a relaxing break. But that may be the worst time to sit down at a card table.

If you are not in good form, if you are angry or stressed, then stay away from the game entirely. Find some other form of stress relief – take the dog for a walk, go to the gym, take the dog to the gym, whatever. Just don’t play poker.

That part is easy. The next bit is not so easy. If you have a problem with tilting for whatever reason, then you need to look at the last couple of times that you tilted and look at the result. Did you win or lose? Did you feel good or bad?

If you lost and felt bad, great! You can use that memory to retrain yourself in how you manage your emotions at the tables.

Generally, when you get sucked out on by a poker donkey who had no business being in the pot in the first place, never mind going all the way to the river to hit his runner runner flush, you tilt and start making bad plays, or play too aggressive in order to get your lost money back.

If that works for you then I don’t have much more to say. But if it doesn’t work, and most times it doesn’t, then it leads to even more lost money. So the way to look at it is like this – not tilting is the profitable move here. Perhaps even not playing any more for this session is the right way to go. Only you will know what is best here. If you can change table and shake off the bad feeling then that’s great. maybe you can even stay at the table and not be bothered by it.

Whatever you have to do, remember that suckouts and donkeys are part of the game and you either learn to live with it or find another game.