Dealing with Emotions in Poker
Emotion plays a very big role in poker. For example, it can be extremely frustrating to lose money while playing well. You are also extremely happy when you win (money). Other emotions also occur at the poker table: you are confused when someone makes a strange move, or you are amused by a very bad player.
While emotions are human and very normal, they often don’t lead to the right decisions in a poker hand. Poker is all about the following logic: you have to think about what you do and cannot make decisions based on ‘a a feeling’. On this page we explain how emotions occur on the poker table and how to deal with them properly.
Negative Emotion: Anger
Perhaps the most common emotion at the online poker tables is anger. Poker is all about variance. Variance means that no matter how well you play, you can always lose, and vice versa. Variance is a major stumbling block for many people. Losing money due to your Aces being cracked by a 2–7 is also very frustrating.
A lot of people handle this in a bad way: they start calling names, blaming other people, or saying the poker room they play in is a scam. This emotion also makes people play worse: they make wrong decisions to win back the money they have lost. And that’s where it gets dangerous for your game.
In an ideal situation, you always want to play your ‘A-game’. This means that, given the situation, you always make the best decision. When you’re angry, you often make decisions that differ from the best. You will probably lose a lot of money with that in the long term.
That is why it is important that if you are angry or frustrated that you stop playing until you are no longer. It is difficult at first to take your loss and exit the software, but it is necessary. So make it a routine that you recognize your emotions and act immediately! That saves you a lot of money.
Positive emotion: Joy
Of course, happiness is also common at the poker tables. There is a lot of money to be won, and if there is one thing that arouses good emotions, it is money. But happiness also involves a number of risks. Joy often leads to optimism. Optimism makes you overestimate your chances.
When people feel positive emotions, it often happens that they play with too much money or play too many hands. The same effect as with anger is thus observed: your emotion makes you make wrong decisions, which are objectively not the best.
Yet joy is not as dangerous as anger. All you need to do is remind yourself to always keep making the right decisions, instead of wanting to win more money or overestimate your odds.
Ways to recognize your emotions
Many people have trouble recognizing when they are angry or too happy. That sounds strange, but it’s easy to hide it from yourself. For example, you tell yourself that things are going well and that you can easily earn your money back.
What you can do to better recognize your emotions is to write down what you feel every time you get angry. Are you trembling? What thoughts do you have? What else do you feel? Do this every time and you will see patterns. Then you can learn to recognize these symptoms. If one of the things you write down occurs, you should think about whether you should stop.
Ways to handle your emotions
The best advice we have is that if you are angry or overly happy, stop playing immediately. Go for a drink, exercise, or watch TV. In any case, take the time until you are completely neutral in emotion again. Only then start playing again.
Even if you have something in life (relationship problems, illness, etc.) it is advisable not to play poker. Emotions can cost you a lot of money, so don’t add that too!
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