Pay attention to who is winning or losing around you

In the current internet environment there is a load of poker training information. If someone wants to become a better player they can simply Google material and if they have the discipline they can use this information to become a winner. The math may seem a bit complex at first but in reality poker math is just simple arithmetic. If the math is easy and the winning information is readily available why is it that there are still a great deal of losing players? The simple answer is that people do not have the emotional control to play their best when they are losing.

Poker is such a great game to gamble on because the effects of the outcomes of situations affect the quality of the play of individuals in the future. How often have you seen someone sit and play tight for hours and hours on end just to endure a bad beat like AA vs QQ preflop and then go off? It is like they think they have an absolute right to win the hand and if something goes against them all “bets are off”. The simple fact of the matter is you will rarely get it in more than a 90% favorite in any form of big bet poker when all of the money goes in. When you get it in as a 90% favorite that means that you will lose 10% of the time. It is how we handle that 10% that separates winning players from losing players.

People that have been playing poker for years still struggle with this concept. They get angry when they take bad beats and they think that the world is against them. It then causes them top play poorly. But no single person takes any more bad beats than anyone else. It is how we handle bad beats that differentiate us from everyone else. You would think that this would be different at the higher levels but in reality it is not. I am still amazed at how badly some professionals play when they are losing. In fact, a good lineup at the higher stakes will sometimes entirely be dictated by who is winning and who is losing. And if this is the case at the higher levels you better make sure you are paying attention to the short term winners and losers at your level.