You’re at the poker table, and things are running pretty hot and heavy: you’ve got a monster hand! Isn’t that awesome!?! After all, you know just what to do with it. You’re going to go big, baby. You’re going to go…
Wait: suddenly your monster hand is reduced to an insect hand, because someone else had the nuts the flop demanded. This is often seen when someone overplays AA or KK, only to get beaten by someone else having two pair. You committed a lot of money to the pot. Now you’re feeling sheepish and you’re not sure how to move on. If you got beaten in the show down, there’s a few things that you’re going to have to do in order to recover, and move on.
To move on, you need to realize that poker isn’t won by one hand over another hand. It’s the accumulation of little wins at the table. It’s the collection of one victory after another, but sometimes those victories might be spaced apart. You can’t just fret that you’re not getting things done. You might need to fold a lot. So what? You might want to tighten up instead of just flying into every single hand. That’s a newbie mistaken. There’ are a lot of tight players that are learning how to tighten up because loose play makes you jump up and do silly things. It would be wiser to go with a tight course of play that really lets you think through every single hand.
Thinking? Yes, thinking. You should be ideally thinking about every single player. What type of moves are they making? Who seems to be controlling the narrative at your table. If there’s one player that seems to be bullying everyone, check to see if they’re going to be bluffing you or not. Call them out at the showdown rather than just letting them sweep pots. You might be surprised at how often this person is pulling one over on you.
Identifying who the short stack is can also be a good thing, because it means that you’re not just accepting anything that falls from the sky. You’re looking at the way the game is played, and that means taking out the people weaker than you. No, no, there’s no time for feelings in poker. If I stopped to worry about how everyone at the table saw me, I wouldn’t make any money.
Speaking of people and their opinions, turn off chat. If you’re getting distracted by all of this commentary, why even listen to it? You need to get into the mentality of ignoring anything that isn’t serving you as long as you’re playing poker.
There will always be another monster hand. It’s the luck of the draw. Just because you didn’t take the pot this time doesn’t mean that you’ll never take another pot again. That’s the thinking of someone with limited poker belief. You want to make sure that you move forward. Studying old game data helps you look at any poker leaks that you have, and fix them before they get worse. Good luck — you always have the power to change up your poker game for the better.