Activities with a high degree of complexity require introspection to raise them to a level where they can be considered “art.” This principle certainly applies to playing poker and even not playing poker. To play or not to play poker requires an intimate knowledge of oneself, more so than most people are willing to learn. Self-evaluation is the basis of introspection and this is very difficult to take on. We struggle against inward knowledge and find it much easier to obtain knowledge of events and circumstance outside ourselves. Accurate self-criticism of our characters is anathema. In poker, lacking introspection can make you play way more and way longer than you intend, but you don’t know how or when to stop.
You may have come to poker because you had no idea what to do with yourself in the first place. Persons without purpose regularly engage in pointless activity. If you just won’t take any introspection, but still want to deal with the problem, a possible way is to deliberately focus on the idea that poker is about winning and that nobody, including yourself, despite what may have been happening for the past year since you had taken up this accursed game, nobody likes to lose.
Focus on the fact that your decision to stay or leave directly influences your profits from the game and that you just can’t afford to lose. Then it will become apparent that the only reason to stay in a game is because there is a good chance to win. Reason broadly with this ultimate goal and ideology in mind. It does not matter whether you are wining or losing at present; it does not matter whether you are being lucky or suffering a bad spell; what matters is the final overall gain; and if you see clearly that the current game, however great it is going, will in the end translate into overall loss, leave the game.
On the other hand, to practice hit-and-run strategies only seems to keep you constantly with a safe benefit. If your goal is not more than to play safe, hit-and-run may be a valid solution. But if you also wish to win, yet be able to leave in time, play discerningly, and leave when you perceive a definite loss.
Realize this, all cards are dealt to all players with random mathematical chance, having nothing to do with lady luck. Becoming a nervous wreck when you get bad cards or getting high on the good ones is nonsensical. However, self-fulfilling prophecies do have some validity as psychological phenomena. A really good game and a lot of luck impresses upon others that you are a good player. This builds up your confidence and allows you to play more aggressively, while your opponents are now feeling weaker, playing in a more cowardly manner, and even more disheartening to them, feeling unlucky.
The important thing is not to let the same happen to you – you will have to allow at least this much introspection and admit that you are afraid of chance and have a tendency to demonize it, but that it is only a quirk of your nature and should not control either your game or your life.
The author is a successful limit cash game player. He plays poker online and receives Rakeback at Ultimate Bet and Rakeback at Absolute Poker.
Tags: entertainment, Gambling, games, Poker, recreation