Poker Psychology

Luck is a Short-term Factor

Having two aces, you can not be one hundred percent sure that you are a favorite. From time to time, your aces can be a lower-ranking hand. The outcomes of particular hands mean nothing. In the long run, your results can tell something about your skills. The longer you play correctly, the more prominent role the skills will play, and the more minor role will play the luck.

If you have decided to play poker professionally, you should play as much as possible to understand the features of this game. You will stop paying attention to split aces and river cards of the wrong color. You will realize that this does not make any difference, and an incompetent opponent who has accidentally defeated you will lose in the long run. Keep in mind: luck is a flighty thing.

Today, you have caught it; tomorrow, it will smile at your opponent. Anyway, the luck is distributed equally. The longer you play correctly, the more you will win, regardless of the particular losses. Fortune favors the skillful. This rule is valid in poker.

Skills are Important in the Long Run

Imagine that you play roulette and wager on black. According to the probability theory, you have to win once out of each two spins (let's assume to make it simpler that there is no zero). But everything may be different in the short run. The ball can fall into a pocket marked black three times in a row, then red may appear once, and black comes up five times.

You must play long enough to reach the theoretical option (black comes up in 50% of spins). Well, the luck determines the outcome in the short run, either red or black comes up more frequently but never one by one constantly.

This statement is suitable for poker. Many times, you can come across a situation called coinflip. What happens if your cards and your opponent's cards have equal chances of winning the hand? The classic example is the duel of two hands: AK and QQ.

How many times will you be able to win such a coin flip? The answer is 50%, but only in the long run. You may lose five times in a row in the short run.

This example shows that you should not hope for luck. The better skills will bring you an advantage in such coinflips. Therefore, developing your skills and playing correctly without worrying about possible loss is essential.

If You Have an Advantage, It Is Insignificant

Poker is a game of small advantages. During the gameplay, the chips go about from one player to another. The winner is determined at the end of a gaming session, and the outcome usually depends on small one-time wins. You can double the size of your stack in one hand and leave the table.

Any professional poker player will never do this. He or she will play until he or she runs out of money. One session is nothing for a pro player since only monthly or quarterly profits are considered.

The players who usually win do not earn on good cards or big jackpots. They make money using the mistakes of their opponents. Now, more and more gamers are playing at least adequately. They make minimal errors, but these mistakes allow experienced players to beat less advanced opponents in the long run. Play a lot and do not make mistakes; your bankroll will grow.

How to Control Emotions in Poker?

However, understanding and accepting the poker realities of being a good player is not enough. That's not all. On the one hand, you need to know the game's rules and features. On the other hand, you have to master a set of behavior patterns and a set of emotions of your opponents.

The sooner you learn to understand them, the better your results will be in this great game. Then, we will focus on discussing emotions that ruin your game. Let's move on to the specific things.

Annoyance

Various things can annoy different players. You can be nervous because you just paid a hefty entry fee, so your behavior at the table is far from perfect. Many players get annoyed when the opponent, who has won a big pot, immediately exits the game without leaving a chance to win money back. Bad beats are annoying. It is very irritating when opponents think too much about the next move.

The irritation of most nervous players may manifest in the form of non-verbal signals, which competent opponents can notice. Some players even have a tremor when they get a strong hand. The others start scratching their noses while bluffing. This results from frustration, and you should avoid this emotion at the poker table.

Pride

Pride is not a bad character feature, but your pride can lead you to trouble at the poker table. For example, your opponent has won three times in a row, and every time after the showdown, you have been able to see that he was bluffing. It seems humiliating, doesn't it? Do you want to try to show the same thing?

Do you want to call bluffing with a low-ranking hand to make this bastard feel like you used to? If you're going to do this, your pride may lead to the loss of money. Poker is not a personal rivalry. It is a game in which you are fighting for money.

Only players who can distinguish their disgust for an opponent from their disgust for losing money can win at poker.

Anger

Every player at the poker table can tremble with anger since poker is sometimes really unfair. You can play well for an extended period, but the lousy player will be able to defeat you. Naturally, this situation can anger. However, you have to control your anger while playing poker since when you are angry, you can try somehow to show your emotions.

It does not matter whether it is the fact that you are playing with low-ranking hands, or insults of other players, or something else. This will not lead to victory in the long and short run. If you are angry, it is necessary to make a break, calm down, and only then keep playing.

Disappointment

Poker is a game full of disappointment. Sooner or later, every player gets into a situation that seems to be illogical and unfair. The disappointed player is not able to make the correct decisions. You should accept these poker realities, and disappointment will turn into indifference.

When you stop paying attention to your disappointment and become able to focus on the gameplay, the outcome of your poker sessions will undoubtedly become better and more profitable.

Fear

Sometimes, it can be scary to sit at the poker table.

• You can be afraid because you think that your opponents play better than you. Then, this weakness will be used by the players who like to bluff.
• You may fear losing money because you are making very high bets. Your strategy will be far from optimal. You'll be too careful and fold at any time if you don't have cards the same as those on the flop.
• You may fear looking like a fool or a coward in front of your opponents. Then, you will not fold when it is appropriate and correct.

You can be afraid of many things. Try to eliminate this fear by preventing the appearance of situations that may lead to it.

Sorrow

If your mental state is not perfect and you feel depressed, you should avoid playing poker. If you think the world is against you today, you should not try to rest at the poker table. It will not change your mind, and your attitude towards the situation at the table will remain the same.

Each bad beat will prove that the world is against you, and everybody wants to deceive you. Anyway, you will lose money. You will play very passively and cannot gain the maximum profit from your cards. When you feel sad or bad, you should not play poker.

Compassion

Poker is a harsh and unforgiving game. You play it to win money, which is the other players' money. To succeed in poker, you must deprive your opponents of cash. Sometimes, when you have won a lot of money at the table, you may feel compassion for your opponents. You can start playing more gently, helping someone in the game. It's very noble, but it has little to do with the most essential task of every poker player.

Happiness

It would seem that happiness is a positive feeling and should be harmless at the poker table, but... Happy players usually do not see any problems in the game. They often succeed in winning a pot in this state. However, excessive feelings of happiness and carelessness at the poker table can lead to too negligent game and exaggeration of your abilities. Don't deceive yourself!

That's the theory. Everyone has emotions. If you show them as rarely as possible, you will gain an advantage over them and, therefore, win their money.

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Tilt and its Kinds

The final part of our article about the psychological aspects of poker deals with tilt. Have you ever played worse than you have to or worse than you can? If so, the reason for this is tilt, which is the main enemy of players.

What is tilt? In a few words, it can be defined as a state of emotional frustration. The player loses self-control, and his behavior at the poker table deviates from standard norms.

However, this is a simplified definition since many kinds of tilt and many factors can cause it.

Hate-Losing Tilt

The first type of tilt is a so-called hate-losing tilt. This means that you start playing too many hands in the pre-flop. You rarely fold after the flop without considering the ranks of your hands. This tilt type develops quickly because no one likes to fold in three-fourths of cases.

Poker is a game in which you don't need to act constantly; sometimes, this can be painful. It is very easy to be tempted to expand your optimal range of hands.

What are the leading causes of hate-loosing tilt? Without any doubt, the first one is boredom. When, after a long period with high-ranking cards, you finally get a hand that looks a little better, you will unconsciously start estimating this hand higher than it deserves. After all, it's just a monster compared to the trash hands dealt earlier! It is easy to forget that this hand should be played only in favorable conditions when you have a good position or chances.

Another factor that may cause a hate-losing tilt is the desire and attempt to win back the lost money. It seems that you are doing everything correctly, but you lose a pot again and again. You think that you should finally beat the aces of your victorious opponent in the same way as he or she used to play against you several times. Yet, the game that aims at winning back your lost money is always unprofitable in the long run, even according to the right strategy. Do not deceive yourself with attractive, suited connectors or a fine position. In any case, you will be the victim of this game.

Disappointment can serve as another cause of hate-losing tilt. Sometimes, it happens due to too many bad beats, so you want to show everyone how to play. You start bluffing too much at inappropriate moments; the opponent defeats you again, and you become even more disappointed. If, after a new bad beat, you want to smash the mouse against the wall, it is better to do so rather than to vent your anger at the poker table. It depends on your cold mind whether you will become the future owner of a pot or not.

The last emotional situation that can lead to a hate-losing tilt is excessive luck. Sometimes, you win everything, all possible and impossible hands. When you see that you can win each hand with any cards, you stop paying attention to the correct range selection and always try to raise and call. Keep in mind that this will not last forever! It might work in the short run, but you will be in trouble if you lose your head. The period of incredible luck always comes to an end. If you do not return to the correct strategy, you will inevitably lose everything you have won and even more.

Tight-Passive Tilt

The tight-passive tilt is opposite to the hate-losing tilt. You rarely play your hands in a narrow range and raise in the flop. You try to wait for cards and to call sometimes. You play in such a way subconsciously to minimize the losses instead of maximizing profits. What can serve as a reason for this?

The first reason is terrible results. When you lose, you stop believing that you can win. So, you start playing in a way that makes the potential losses less fatal to your reduced bankroll. You can think that you have been unlucky; it's not your day, and it is better to avoid taking risks to stop losing. However, remember that poker is not just a comparison of the cards after the deal. There are also the turn and the river apart from the flop. You unconsciously deprive your hand of a chance to win the hand, folding when you have an opportunity to win.

The second reason for the tight-passive tilt is the selection of higher bets. This often occurs when the limits are increased. You start subconsciously counting the cost of chips and trying to decrease risks, even when the risk is beneficial. In addition, you can unconsciously start treating your opponents as better players. After all, they have been playing using these big bets for a long time; they are indeed the best! You are afraid of playing against them, bluffing and reraising.

The last factor, which causes a tight-passive tilt, is insufficient bankroll. When your bankroll balance can not survive a long period of losses, you subconsciously start playing in a way that allows for minimizing loss and avoiding risks. And that is the main cause of your bad results. When you have adequate financial capabilities, this tilt does not threaten you.

Formal Tilt

Another kind of tilt is a formal tilt. It is quite a controversial question whether it is a real tilt or not because this state is not associated with strong emotions. Anyway, it is a state in which you can not do your best. Thus, we can formally assume that it's a tilt.

What happens in this case? The formal tilt manifests in the way of playing. Users play automatically, dogmatically following the recommendations of poker books. You will automatically fold when playing under the gun, paying no attention to the actions of the players sitting in front of you. You automatically call when you have a middle-ranking hand. You automatically protect the blinds when you have the hands that are mentioned in the textbooks. Poker is a game with small advantages; a formal tilt leads to a loss.

What can be the reason for it?

1. First of all, it is boredom. When you play too much, you often start playing automatically. Many things can distract you from the game when you're bored and unable to control it at your table.
2. The second cause is fatigue. When you are tired and sleepy, you can easily miss some of the nuances that affect your game. You automatically click on the buttons following the cards that appear on the screen in front of your eyes, which are puffy from lack of sleep and do not see how your opponents are playing. If you are tired, it is better to stop playing.
3. The decrease in limits can serve as another cause of the formal tilt. When you have to reduce the bet, you subconsciously stop feeling the price of chips and respect your opponents. You begin to think it is enough to use basic strategy to beat these fishes since they play worse than you. Maybe you can win, but not as much as you could.

Perhaps in the case of a formal tilt, you will not lose a lot of money, but you will win less. This is the mildest form of tilt, but it still affects the amount of income you earn, since you can not do your best to earn the highest possible sum.

Aggressive Tilt

We have already discussed mild kinds of tilt and reached its severe forms. Aggressive tilt is the worst kind of tilt, and, fortunately, not everyone had the opportunity to experience it. However, perhaps this article will save you from falling into this trap. What are its features? - First of all, it is associated with aggressive game, unreasonably aggressive play. You raise in situations where you just need to call or even fold. You play each hand and always go all-in. It's a real insanity.

The causes of aggressive tilt are different, but they mainly include negative emotions that exceed a certain breaking point. Sometimes, a player has experienced so many bad feelings, so much anger and sorrow accumulate in his or her soul, that he or she does not understand that he or she is sitting at the poker table. The player plays very aggressively, trying to win each pot without considering the loss of money. Most often, the player calms down only after losing the whole bankroll.

Aggressive tilt can also cause a desire for revenge. For example, someone defeated you, and you lost a lot of money. It was shameful and humiliating because your opponent was bluffing. Now, you are feeling vengeful against him. You do not want to save money. Your task is not to win a big pot. You aim to get even with that particular player. Well, this desire almost always results in the loss of the entire bankroll.

The good news is that you can quickly notice an aggressive tilt and take countermeasures. For example, you can turn off the computer, take a cold shower, and walk. A break is necessary since aggressive tilts are usually short-term and very intense and often result in the loss of large amounts and damage to PC peripherals such as the mouse, keyboard, or monitor.

Tight Tilt

One rare and not very painful type of tilt is the so-called tight one. No one initially likes to play tightly because it's boring, so this tilt does not occur too often. What is it? For example, you fold too many hands with high potential in the preflop without paying attention to the position, or you fold a flush draw and a straight one after the flop. Poker players primarily want to protect their winnings.

You have built a tall stack and fear losing or significantly reducing it. You know you play well and do not want to finish the game right now, but the fear of losing the won amount does not allow you to try your best. Therefore, you play tightly, counting the minutes till the end of the session, and earn profits.

Another reason for developing a tight tilt is a widespread situation among players; if it is not shameful, it is funny. Some players believe that some hands are successful for them, and others are, on the contrary, unsuccessful.

For example, when you get a couple of bad beats of pocket queens, you start thinking that QQ is an unlucky hand for you. You will permanently lose having it, and nothing in the world will persuade you. If you have such an unlucky hand, it is enough to join the players experiencing the tight tilt. You deprive yourself of the game with good cards and a high probability of winning money due to silly prejudices.

In general, we can say that the tight tilt is caused by a lack of self-confidence.

Fantasy Tilt

The last type of tilt discussed in this article is a fantasy tilt. It is the opposite kind of formal tilt: when you need to play simply and optimally, you try to play with exaggeration. The main reason for the development of fantasy tilt is excessive greed. When everything goes well, some players try crazy actions to win even more. Playing with success in this mode, the player does not understand that he or she wins despite this way of playing and not because of it...

Another reason is the wrong table. When all rational methods from textbooks do not bring effect, it may seem to the player that perhaps it is time for a little magic trick. Maybe the well-prepared bluff will help, or, on the contrary, it is necessary to slow down the game.

You can surely be lucky, and your fantastic action will be successful, but this is usually useless. Unusual steps are efficient only for the players who also have them in their range of activities. You should just play well to win more frequently.

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Conclusion

As you can see, there are a lot of demons that can enter your head to prevent you from making money at the poker table. And the best exorcist who can cast them out is you.

Keep a calm mind and do not follow your emotions. This is the best way to win at poker.