07- 5-05, LearnTexasHoldem:
Spiraling Out Of Control
thanks
Paul
Top 3 Beginner Rooms
Why do terrible bad beats affect you differently than losing in a regular hand? (I would actually prefer losing to a bad beat, someone getting extremely lucky, as opposed to me losing because I played poorly -- like calling down with a marginal hand against a preflop raiser. If someone has to beat me by getting really lucky, I'm doing everything right to win.) A loss is a loss, regardless of whether the guy had 10 outs or 1 out. You have lost the hand, there is nothing to do about it now, so what value is there in getting upset? After you have lost the hand, all you can and should do is review the hand in your head to try and get as much information as you can from it, and move on.
Part of what makes losing hands no affect me is because I have a very realistic idea of how a regular winning day goes. I expect to get my fair share of bad beats. There are always bad beats, and the more bad beats, the better the game is. Surprisingly, it takes very little to actually have a good session at cards. Often times it just comes down to a couple key pots. How you win these pots doesn't matter either, which brings me to my next point. Most new players have the bad habit of getting emotionally tied to pretty cards. When they lose with AA, they feel much worse than when they lose with A4.
To play winning poker, you can't have that attitude. I'm just as happy to win with my suited connectors and lose all my big pairs as I am vice versa. AA is the best starting hand, but if it loses, I don't feel like I'm out of control or incapable of winning. I don't feel like this hand, or any other hand, is the only thing that makes up the day. Often times some of the largest pots I win are wacky hands from the blinds, hands that you would never plan on winning with.
Next, if you are confident you have a winning strategy, you prefer to have people drawing with very light hands against you. This is how you make your money in poker. Complaining about bad beats is counter productive. Do you want the bad player to tighten up and stop trying to get lucky? I even hear good players at big games complain that someone plays so badly they can't beat them. That is absolutely ridiculous. Bad players by definition are easier to beat and give their money away. As a good player your job is to play good poker against them as much as you can, the rest will take its course.
A horrible player is capable of laying a worse beat on you than a good player, but that shouldn't be something you fear. You want them trying to bad beat you in every hand. I play with a very nice businessman a few times a month. He is one of the worst players I've ever seen at a limit that high. He is a huge donator to the game, but many players there get pissed off at him when he finally wins a pot. He lays bad beats on me too, but it doesn't phase me. I just tell him, "nice hand!" and move on. I don't feel rushed or threatened at all by him beating me in a few pots. It is necessary to keep him coming back. If he always lost, he wouldn't keep playing. Every now and then he needs to pull a pot or two.
Having a realistic look at the numbers makes beats more bearable too. Take your AA losing to QJ when the person flops only a Jack. The guy has six outs to the river. That means that about a quarter of the time, he will catch one of the outs and beat you. If you string a few of those events together, it can seem as though the world is against you, but it really is well within the limits of what could happen, yet many players carry on as though it was a million to one.
Remember, poker is a game of very small edges and if you lose control and get stubborn, paying off every hand that runs you down, you won't be able to win because you take away what little edge you had. Only through keeping a clear head can you make good decisions.
You started off the question by stating that you like to play 3/6 online because you could play with only $50. That's a big problem though and it directly affects how quickly you'll go on tilt. I remember years ago when I would play over my head, in games too large for my bankroll. I would have only $5000 and be playing short handed $25/50 -- a game with very large swings. It was very easy to swing a couple thousand dollars and when I did get down to only a couple thousand left on the table, I would get really nervous and try to create situations that weren't there, which only spun me more out of control.
See good poker can only do so much. No matter how well you play, you must have the correct bankroll because there are inevitable swings. $50 for a 3/6 game isn't nearly enough. That really is just two or three pots that you go to the river and lose. A big part of why I don't tilt now is because I don't play in games that my bankroll can't cushion. It feels really good to sit there and know that no matter what happens that day, or the next, or the next, they can't break me. And that combined with playing well almost ensures that I win. So the final advice I can give you is to either deposit more money, or play in a smaller limit.
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