Wrong attitude.

[StuR]

Hello, I have only been playing online for about 6 months and am so far up a liltte bit of money - I'd say I'm better than average with a WHOLE lot more to learn.

I read, reread take notes etc on my game and am happy with the way its developing I just have one MAJOR MAJOR problem.

I find it hard to lose.

I know this is a big problem and were just wondering whether you guys had any tips on getting over it/accepting it as a part of the game.

I find it hard to leave sessions a loser and if I'm up I will sometimes leave a good game so that I'm a winner.

The bankroll I have started at $40 dollars so I'm not bothered about losing it all in monetarty terms - I think its just pride. My friends know I play alot and that I have invested a lot of time and money into learning the game and I'd hate to tell them I'm losing - And this attitude sucks.

So any tips/ways of thinking that can get me out of this frame of mind. I know I have to learn to deal with it. Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks

StuR

[Al Schoonmaker]

Roy West and Rolf Slotboom have articles on cardplayer.com. I believe that Rolf's has the words "Hit and run" in it. I can't remember the title of Roy's. If you email either of them, they will probably give you the exact reference. You can also go to Rolf's website, acespeaks.XXX. I am not sure of what comes after the period.
Regards,
Al

[Rolf Slotboom]

Mr. Schoonmaker is correct. The title of the article he probably refers to is called "The truth about hitting and running", available in the CardPlayer archives, and the exact address of my site can be found below. You may or may not find some other things there that are helpful in this respect. There's also another piece by me that focuses on this subject. The article is called something like "About hourly rate and win rate", but I'm not certain it is in the CP archives, as it might have been written before I joined them. If the article is unavailable over there and you are interested in it, I will simply try to put it on the site in a week or so.

Rolf Slotboom
www.acespeaks.cjb.net

[gergery]

Zen and the Art of Poker is a good book that helps with this some.

I find focusing on the math part of it helps. (ie. I'm supposed to lose AA to lower pairs 1 time in 5 -- if it hasn't happened the last 4 then it should now, etc.)

Also remind yourself that the fish are merely holding onto your money until you come to collect it back.

[Figge]

Try looking at your poker career as one loooooooooooong session instead of each session one by one, then a losing session just becomes a losing hand and nothing more.

Be well!

[Kopefire]

[ QUOTE ]
(ie. I'm supposed to lose AA to lower pairs 1 time in 5 -- if it hasn't happened the last 4 then it should now, etc.)


[/ QUOTE ]

That is just soo .... wrong . ..


i hope you just were pulling this example out of the air and don't really think that way.

If some independent event (which all card hands are) has a probability of happening 1 time in 5, and it hasn't happened in the last 4 times, then this time it still has a probably of happening 1 time in 5.

Past hands do not influence the probability of current hands.

[njc2o]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
(ie. I'm supposed to lose AA to lower pairs 1 time in 5 -- if it hasn't happened the last 4 then it should now, etc.)


[/ QUOTE ]

That is just soo .... wrong . ..


i hope you just were pulling this example out of the air and don't really think that way.

If some independent event (which all card hands are) has a probability of happening 1 time in 5, and it hasn't happened in the last 4 times, then this time it still has a probably of happening 1 time in 5.

Past hands do not influence the probability of current hands.

[/ QUOTE ]

take out what he said about "if it hasn't happened the last four times, it should, he has the write thought process...

i mean, i've seen my AA get cracked by AK after a flop like Qxx rainbow twice ... and statistically, that should happen 2 out of every 100 times. it's important to understand that the person drawing extremely thin ( < 10% ) is going to hit every now and again... that's the way the statistics work

[x2ski]

[ QUOTE ]
Try looking at your poker career as one loooooooooooong session instead of each session one by one, then a losing session just becomes a losing hand and nothing more.

[/ QUOTE ]

I like that philosophy... I've always thought of poker as one long session, but looking at a losing session as just one losing hand is comforting. Therefore, I've only had 3 losing hands in a row [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] Thanks!

[coffeecrazy1]

Basically, it boils down to this, in my opinion.

Everyone has sucked out on someone else before.
Everyone has been sucked out on by someone else before.

Turnabout is fair play, even when it comes to luck.
Luck is a constant in poker, like part of a physics equation. It can't be erased, but it can't be increased either...it's just there.

Bad beats will happen, but maybe a way about bad beats is this: bad beats are the source of any money you will ever win, because those same players who drew out on you this time, won't be able to do so next time.

-Bart

P.S. I wish I could be this Zen when J3 offsuit destroys my pocket Kings.

[gergery]

lol, i hope you are deliberately misunderstanding.

Obviously cards are independent. He is asking for a mentality to approach the game, not a lesson in statistics. The point is clearly that while any one given suckout on your AA is unexpected, over a long period of time, about 1 in 5 times you *should* expect it.