Archive for July 8th, 2010

Know When To Stop Playing That Losing Game Of Poker

Thursday, July 8th, 2010

To stay and play or not to stay and play, that is the question. If we leave too early, we are tortured by the thought of future potentially winning hands. If we leave too late, we have already lost our shirts and not potentially, which is even worse, especially that last grisly hour. We will never know why we overstayed our hand and are doomed to repeat the error when next we face the table.

What is missing in the above scenario is a critical analysis of the situation based on logic, not a hunch. When thinking logically about time, like say, it’s time to pick up your kid from preschool, or your spouse from the airport, you must of course leave immediately when the time has come. If you are at the table and the hoped for jackpot is just around the corner so you miss important dates and responsibilities, you are in trouble my friend. The longer you avoid responsibility and remain at the table, the worse your play will be because you know you are expected elsewhere and that burdens your mind and may well ruin your life.

If poker is supposed to be entertainment but you are not enjoying it – this is a good reason to leave early, before the game becomes a tangle nightmare of bad moves and worse moods. You often see player who take up poker as recreation, but when a game gets too much for them, they cannot leave, and yet they cannot play. They stay out of some sort of perverse compulsion to prolong their torment, not willing to walk out losers. They stay and become greater losers with every losing new hand, instead of accepting good-naturedly accepting the situation – which is merely pastime anyway – and leaving the table, remaining in a good mood, and perhaps trying another game later at another table.

The first step in understanding this type of behavior is to realize that the problem does not lie in the game of poker itself. It lies in you and your persistence in continuing to play and to lose at an “amusement” that is pointless and unproductive and at which you are not having fun. This is avoidance and self-delusion at its finest, having no connection with poker.

This behavior is undoubtedly manifesting itself in other aspects of your life as well. You must refocus to help you uncover the source of your problem. Don’t waste any more time wondering dumbly why you have once again overstayed your playing time by that murderous extra hour and try to concentrate on envisioning yourself in your other day-to-day activities. This may allow you the insight to discover incidences totally unrelated to your poker game where your behavior is the same.

The problem may lie in not facing the fact that you hate your job, or owning up to a real feeling of grief that you have suppressed for a long time. If you are able to make a connection, you may be able to stop kicking yourself and enjoy the reality of life and of poker.

The author is a successful limit cash game player. He plays poker online and receives Rakeback at Cake Poker and competes in the monthly Races and Rolls Freerolls.

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