Opponents who like to lose

Just like most of the money at the higher levels are won and lost through players steaming there is a lot to say about the timing within a session when the recreational players dump the most. A lot of the guys that come to play poker have gambling problems. And a lot of people with those issues are addicted to losing.

It has something to do with self-punishing behavior. You have to grapple with this when you are taking poker seriously in order to make profit because you have to beat these types of players. I justify winning from them because if these guys were not losing through poker they would be dropping their money at a table game or through sports gambling to a big conglomerate.

When you identify this type of player you will see that the times that he wins he will sometimes sheepishly leave the table at the end of his session almost as if he is ashamed of the fact that he has won. He is so use to losing and projecting this upon his own persona that it is very rare that he ends up leaving the table without being stacked.

These guys are looking to lose their money at the end of the session and you should pay careful attention to their playing patterns. Whether it is a small business owner that leaves at 4:00PM every day to get home to his wife for dinner or a guy that needs to leave to go to work in the morning there are definitely cues that will indicate when someone’s session is about to conclude. And if you watch these players in that final few rounds you will see that there gambling goes up and the skill level of their play goes remarkably down.