Emotions and poker

Human being s have have two unique features: hope and greed. Hope and greed make people do desperate things, like go all-in with a pair of sevens. Sometimes that might work but usually not, because there are many other higher cards in a deck and some other player might have those cards.

Beware of the little thing in you mind called hope. Hope is your enemy at the table, it makes you do desperate things. Rather rely on pot odds that your mind hoping for some miracle to happen. One good tool to keep your mind from making big mistakes is by using poker odds calculators. Click here to visit Pokeroffice, one of the best odds calculators available. - For some reason I have stopped using Pokeroffice because I rely on Pokeroffice and not my own instinct. Sometimes looking at just statistics could be fatal.

You might have heard Sting’s famous song “If you love somebody, set them free” A bit strange quote to apply to Texas hold’em poker. One that has a link into the key secrets of playing emotion-free poker. One can continue the song by saying “If it’s yours it will come back to you”. What the song never says that it will not be easy to set someone you love to go free; in fact, it might be the hardest thing you can do. But the implication is if you hold on to someone too tightly, if you try by force of will to keep what you love, you end up destroying or hurting someone

The same holds with poker. You can’t play poker well just by wanting to; luck and the cards don’t respond to your mental feelings. Texas hold’em poker is a game of humble surrender as much as aggressive attack; sometimes you just have to let them go. You may not want to “set them free,’ but often it will be the only thing that will keep you from losing your money.

Important part of playing is to set your emotions aside. Play cool regardless of the outcome of a particular hand. There are always people will get their missing card at river, don’t worry about that. It’s enough if you know that your played your hand right. Getting caught up in a run of excitement because things are falling your way can push your buttons almost as quickly and easily if you are steaming from a bad beat. You should not continue playing in the same table if the fish has left the table. Next player might be a better player and you might lose to him. Take a break and find another table.

 In order to play at your best, with your mind working clearly (and consequently making the best out of strong hands and good position, and thereby making money) you must not play emotionally. People make their mistakes often when they have their emotions high.

Alcohol and poker is another dangerous combination. Alcohol makes you play more loose style (for extra tight passive player could be a good thing). So combining poker and alcohol is not something we suggest you to do. However if you are just having fun with friends poker and alcohol mix very well together. The amount of excitement will triple when people have had few glasses of wine.

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