Poker News

Ashley Adams

It was a friendly home game with seven friendly players. None of them were particularly aggressive. None of them were terribly tough or tricky. Why was I so sure of this? The game was at my house and I hand picked the opposition. Pretty sweet setup, no?

But things didn’t go as planned. It wasn’t the cakewalk I had anticipated. All of the high alcohol content beer and the extra salty chili meant to encourage them to drink it didn’t seem to be working. I was losing.

No, that doesn’t give the evening justice. I wasn’t just losing. I was getting my ass kicked. I was getting bashed, smashed, sliced, diced, dissected and rejected. I was pushed around, messed up, and taken down. My bankroll went from healthy to anemic. Hell, my confidence was so shaken that I was folding in the dark.

What’s a fella to do when he is toasted and roasted as I was? Do you give up the game and hang your head in shame, taking up Hearts or Cribbage or Whist instead?

Well, that’s an option. But it’s not the one I recommend - at least not if you really want to be a winning poker player. Let me explain how I have learned to deal with defeat in poker and how to develop a healthy response to the painful process of getting whipped, ripped and double dipped.

First of all, unlike nearly any other sporting activity, no one requires that you continue. There’s no race to finish, no more innings you have to complete, no clock that has to expire. Had enough spray from the whupass nozzle? Just stop playing right then. Don’t think about. Just stop. Have the courage to get up and admit you’re done. It’s tough but it’s also sometimes the smartest move you can make. You’re playing to make money not to prove a point. And if your head is so screwed up with the taste of your own blood then stop the bleeding, count your losses and walk away.

The second thing you need to do is to think. It’s not enough to walk away. You need to consider what it is that you have just done that has caused you to lose. Have you played poorly? Have you underestimated your opponents? Have you just received a terrible run of second best hands that you actually played well? Could you have lost more money? Less money? I remember a time I played poker in a casino near Minneapolis. I lost hundreds of dollars in a $15/30 game in just a few hours. So I walked away from the table, thought about the hands I had played and how I played them. I came to the conclusion that I had played them correctly, that my opponents were bad and loose and had gotten lucky, and that I was superior. I went back after my break, played excellently, and won back my initial losses plus many hundreds of dollars more.

Finally, you must do a gut check. Do you have the stomach for more fighting? Sometimes your losses sap more than your bankroll. They sap your ability to think clearly and compete. If you don’t have the stomach for any more potential losses then you won’t be able to take those necessary risks when the odds are in your favor. So you will be playing weak-tight - a recipe for more losses. If that’s the case, give up playing for the night and wait until your bankroll and your ego are sufficiently

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