Play Poker in the Long Run

For causal and mediocre Poker players, winning a big pot here and there will be enough; they will forget about the two dozen or so they lost and just think about what they won. This kind of thinking is the reason why a lot of players struggle in the game.

If you want to play the game for a living, then you need to look beyond that big hand you won. There is nothing wrong with feeling good about winning a big pot. On the contrary, prevailing in a cash game, or emerging victorious in a Poker tournament on your first attempt is most welcome.

Having confidence in oneself is crucial for the development of the correct mental and emotional attitude of the player. However, the reality is that the game has swings and variances. You are winning now, and you feel that your Poker skills are at par with the best of them. But you could just as easily lose tomorrow.

While you won this Poker tournament, you could, if dealt the wrong set of cards, bust out early in the next event you participate in. What happens to most players is that they get so emotionally caught in a win or loss that they lose track of what is going on.

Go to any online Poker room and you will see a player who struggles for several hands, and then wins a big pot. What he does in the next hand is to bet hard and go all in and you will that he has taken a J5 to the showdown.

The same thing happens when a hard luck player wins in a tourney. Instead of doing the sensible thing and returning to playing in the limit he is used to, he goes on to compete in high stakes games, and proceeds to lose it all. That tourneys and cash games are totally different entities is something that rarely, if ever, crosses their minds.

What all this means is that if you are going to play Poker, you need to do so with the knowledge that everything that happens now can, depending on how you react to the swings, have a positive or negative effect in the long run.

For new Poker players, this concept may be difficult to understand, but in simple terms, it boils down to this: as you play, win or lose, do not get carried away. Step back and look at how you are doing after each session. Then you can get a sense of satisfaction because despite losing some pots today, you are still winning and making money overall.