1. I Keep Losing At Online Poker Money
2. I Keep Losing At Online Poker Free

You know, one of the funny things about breaking this page up into 3 sections is how little the difference is between the best online poker sites for recreational and pro players. And, often times they’re the same room. Few sites really only cater to recreational players, and none we can think of only cater to pros.

Jul 31, 2015  Being a losing poker player isn’t much different from being a craps player or a slots player. You’re going to win some, and you’re going to lose some. But then some of my online buddies decided we were going to have a weekly game at Party Poker. They wanted to. Nov 12, 2018 Prolonging your (often-losing) online poker session beyond your physical or mental capacity will almost always have a negative impact on your game. You will start feeling nervous, annoyed at people because they’re taking too long to act, and angry at yourself for not quitting while you were ahead.

Poker players are losers. I don’t mean that metaphysically. I don’t mean to insult you as a person. But practically speaking, most of the time when you play poker you lose. It’s just a fact.

Disagree? Think about it for a second. The opposite of winning is losing. If you are dealt 30 hands an hour, how many do you win? Even if you’re an extraordinarily loose player and very lucky you surely don’t win 15 or more of those hands. You probably win more like four or five hands an hour – at most. That means you lose the rest – some 25 or more hands every hour. Most of the hands you lose, you lose because you concede early on – perhaps after seeing no more than your first two cards. Other hands you lose by conceding on the flop, or turn, or river. Or you lose in a showdown. But one way or another, most of the hands you lose. Yes?

That doesn’t make you a bad person, mind you – or even a bad poker player for that matter. Far from it. In fact, ironically, the more hands an hour you win, the more likely you are to be a bad poker player. If, for example, you never folded, you would win more hands an hour than anyone else – but you’d probably lose the most money an hour as well. How good would that be?

The key is to learn how to lose – not to learn never to concede. That’s a tough lesson for many of us who consider ourselves competitive by nature. We don’t like to lose. We play poker to win. Our nature is to see losing as failure – instead of as an inevitable part of being overall winners. This tendency can truly hurt our bottom line – in a few ways.

First of all, if we are so loss-averse as to avoid losing at all costs, we’ll be employing a strategy that is inherently self-defeating. There are generally two ways that this occurs. For many, being loss-averse keeps us in hands longer than we should be in them. We embrace the old adage that winners never quit and quitters never win. This is very bad advice for the poker player. Good poker players do quit. They quit when they recognize that they are not likely enough to win to warrant putting more money in the pot. They balance their chance of success with the money they will win if they continue. If the money isn’t sufficient they gladly concede rather than buck the odds and play on.

Some poker players err in the other direction. They are so loss-averse that they do not engage in battles they should fight. They avoid all but the sure-win contests – folding prematurely, even though their chance of success, though not great, is still large enough when considering the amount they will win, to continue in the hand.

Here’s an example of the former problem. You have a pair of Jacks on the deal in late position. Two players call the big blind in this $1/2 no limit game. You make it $12 to go. You get three callers. The flop is . The first player of the four who see the flop bets $30. The next player calls. The next player folds and the action is to you. You reason that one of the two players must have at least an Ace or a King or even, perhaps, AK. The other player may well have a flush draw you surmise. You figure you’re likely to be far behind one player – and may in fact be in third place. Even so, tough competitor that you are, you conclude that the battle isn’t lost. You might make a set if a Jack hits. You might make Broadway with two perfect cards. And they both might be overplaying their hands. You decide to call to see the turn.

This is an awful move. You are refusing to admit defeat when in fact that is exactly what you should do. You haven’t learned to lose by conceding when the odds are strongly against you, and so you are costing yourself money.

The latter problem of fearing loss may not be as common, but it is equally pernicious. Here’s an example of it. You’ve been playing limit hold’em with a bunch of loose and somewhat wild players. You started with a pair of Jacks in late position. Two players called the big blind in this $10/20 limit game. You raised. Everyone called. So five of you saw the flop. The flop was . Everyone checked to you. You bet with your Jacks, since you figured that your opponents would have bet if they held either an Ace or a King. So you figured you were still in the lead. You got three callers. The turn was the . The players checked to you. You bet $20 and got one caller. The hit, making the board . Your opponent paused and then bet $20. You paused, thinking about what he was likely to have.

You are torn. On the one hand he may be bluffing. It’s something he’s done before. On the other hand you’re feeling pretty weak, since he might have a pair of Aces or Kings, or even a set of 9′s or 2′s or even a flush. You decide that there are so many hands that can beat you that it’s not worth a call. You don’t want to showdown a hand and lose. So you fold.

This is a horrible fold. Admittedly, you might lose. There are many hands he could have that would beat you. But the very fact that you had to pause and think about this shows that you’re hardly certain that you have the losing hand. You even know that there is a chance, albeit maybe a small chance, that he is bluffing. The pot contains $150. You’re getting 15 to 2 odds for your call. If you fold and have the best hand you’re making a $150 mistake. If you call in error you’re only making a $20 mistake. You are surely not that sure that you’ll lose. So a call clearly makes sense. But you’re afraid to lose in a showdown. Your fear of losing causes you to make a very bad decision.

There are other problems that develop if you don’t know how to lose at poker. Some poker players get thrown off their games when the cards don’t go their way. They can’t handle, psychologically, the repeated or unfortunate losses that are a regular part of a poker game. They get so frustrated when good fortune doesn’t shine on them that their emotions cloud their better judgment. There are many names for this condition: steaming and tilting being the most common.

Losses need to be understood in the broad context of a very, very long game with lots of variance. Losing streaks, bad beats, bad calls by others resulting in tough losses by you are all a part of the game. Expect them. Anticipate them. They are the landscape of any game that couples luck and skill. If you find that you get shaken up when a loose player lucks out on the river and overtakes your hand, then learn to walk away from the game for a bit, until you calm down. And if you can’t calm down learn to leave the game for the day.

By Ashley Adams

Ashley Adams lives in Boston, Massachusetts and has been playing poker for decades. He is the author of two poker books and his specialty is 7-card stud and no-limit hold'em.

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

“This game is evil.”
“How could that SOB get lucky on me again?”
”Why do I keep losing?”
“What am I doing wrong?”
“I always get my money in with the best hand, but it never seems to hold up.”
“I raise and re-raise but these idiots don’t know the meaning of the word ‘fold’.”
“I make all the right moves, ply my ‘A’ game, but haven’t had a winning session in months.”
“Sometimes I just want to quit.”

Do any of the above quotes sound familiar? Have you heard them from any poker players you know? Have you, perhaps, asked some of these questions yourself? From the lowliest limit game grinder to the stars to the poker TV tournament scene, every player eventually hits the brick wall known as ‘running bad’. How can you tell the difference between ‘running bad’ and playing badly? Even more importantly, how can you keep ‘running bad’ from turning into ‘going mad’? Here are a few ideas that will help you keep you edge at the table and keep your head away from the felt when the roller-coaster ride of your poker career takes a sharp drop.

Switch from ATC to ABC Poker

If you pride yourself on your abilities to play any two cards from any position, but find other players seeing through your bluffs and brass, you should slow down and get back to basics. When you play by the book, ABC poker, you can get a true measure of if you’re playing badly or simply the victim of variance. Sure, Gus Hansen is younger, cooler and better looking than Dan Harrington and his macho, aggressive style is much more exciting to watch than ‘Action’ Dan’s. Remember, though, which one has a WSOP Main Event title (1995) and two Main Event final tables in two straight years (’03, ’04) in two of the biggest fields up to that time.

Read a Poker Book (or Website)

Speaking of Harrington, many players consider his “Harrington on Hold’em” series among the best poker books ever written on the subject of no-limit hold’em tournaments. If you ever feel frustrated with your game, don’t be afraid to go back to the drawing board (or, in this case, your bookshelf) and study the works of the masters such as Harrington, Sklansky, Krieger and, of course, Brunson. For those of you who prefer to learn th techniques of your favorite online hotshot instead of one of the ‘old guard’, many of them have blogs or post their hand histories on various forums. Such immediate insight without the filter of an editor or a publisher can take you inside their thoughts as they guide you through how they play their hands.

Play Different Poker Games

If your primary specialty is no-limit hold’em tournaments, you could try a low-limit cash game to learn patience, pot odds and turn/river play. If you want to step away from hold’em temporarily, other poker games can teach you needed skills that you can still apply in your hold’em arsenal. For instance, Razz (seven card stud low) can teach you the true value of starting hand selection. Pot-limit Omaha can help you learn about controlling the size of the pot as well as how to read various possibilities on the board, especially in the high/low variation of the game. Seven card stud reinforces the ideas of counting outs and not chasing longshot draws. Mixed games, of course, require all of these lessons, which is why many pros favor such a blend of games in both the famous “big game” at Bellagio as well as the $50,000 buy-in WSOP HORSE tourney. In simple terms, if you take the stress of your game away from winning and emphasize the learning process, eventually you’ll improve your game and get back on the winning track.

Step Down Your Betting Levels

If you’re a struggling cash game player at your current level, you may want to step down a level or two. Such a move can improve your results for several reasons. Typically, players at lower levels are less skilled or experienced, thus you can use your superior knowledge, as well as your application of the basic principles, to work your way back up. Also, lower betting levels will place much less stress on your depleted bankroll; if, for some reason, you continue to run bad, the wounds won’t be as sever as they would be at the higher level. The only caveat to this idea is that some players lose their edge when they step down. This may be due to lack of motivation, resentment at the need to take a step backward or underestimating their new opposition. In any case, you must still play your best poker even at lower levels. Instead of considering it a step down or some type of failure as a player, think of it as a ‘rehab assignment’ for your poker bankroll. In baseball, when a star player is coming back from injury, he spends a few weeks in the minor leagues to play himself back into shape. Don’t consider a step down to be a “demotion”, just a way to play yourself back into the mental shape needed to play at your usual level.

Don’t Take Results Personally

One brilliant forum poster had an insightful quote on reading too much into the results of playing sessions:

“Caring about poker results is like falling in love with a stripper.”

I Keep Losing At Online Poker Money

While you can read what you want into the poster’s love life, the truth remains that variance in poker results is inevitable. Although keeping track of the results of each session is important, a losing session (or even a string of bad sessions) have less to do with your abilities as a player than the day-to-day fluctuations in the stock market have to do with the overall health of the economy.

Take a Break from the Game for a While

Players would also serve themselves well by remembering a quote from a certain eleven-time WSOP bracelet winner who had this to say during last summer’s Main Event: “To you, this is poker. To me, this is my life!” If it weren’t for this player’s overbearing ego and displays of obnoxious behavior, such a statement could be considered pathetic and sad. Away from the table, he enjoys a life filled with love from his long-suffering wife and family, universal respect from his peers and adoration from fans of the game. He has given of his time, effort and money to numerous worthy charitable organizations and has earned recognition for his ability to teach new players some of the finer nuances of the game. His statement after losing a hand, as well as calling the winning player an ‘idiot’ repeatedly and berating his national origin not only showed a lack of class and respect for both the game and his opponent, but also displayed a disturbing lack of perspective. Keep in mind when you need to step away from the game that you have more to offer your family, your friends and the world than just winning and losing a poker hand.

Remember that, as much as you may watch it, play it, study it and get frustrated by it, poker is still a game. Unless you’re a pro, it’s not your job. Even if you are a pro, it’s certainly not your life. Poker is meant to be fun; if it weren’t, why else would we all still put up with it?

By Gerald Hanks

Gerald Hanks is from Houston Texas, and has been playing poker since 2002. He has played cash games and no-limit hold’em tournaments at live venues all over the United States.

Leave a Reply

I Keep Losing At Online Poker Free

You must be logged in to post a comment.