Don’t focus on the results
Lately I have been having a lot of deep runs on the poker felt, but unfortunately the big scores stayed out. It got to the point that I said: “whatever happens, happens. I can win it, great. I can bust now, that’s okay too. I don’t care.” Some people thought that was weird, because how can you not care about whether you win $20K+ or leave with $500? Let me explain.
When you bust a tournament early on, you probably think: whatever, on to the next one. You bust 20 tournaments in a row early on, you may start to get frustrated. Why is that? Well you probably got used to dealing with busting a tournament, but busting 20.. that doesn’t happen as frequently. The same for deep runs, those don’t happen as often so you just don’t have the sample and with that experience yet to deal with it as well as with more common things. Remember the first time you lost with aces? Neither can I, but I am sure you were lost for words like everyone else was.
How to deal with ups and downs better?
You will get better at dealing with it as time goes by, but in the meantime there are a few things you can do that I personally use to deal with it better.
Put things in perspective
Like I said at the start, I try to stop caring about whether I win the tournament or not, so that I become less emotionally invested in it. I try to do so by imagining how things would change if I end up winning it, the answer was: nothing would change. So if nothing would change, why would you go through those huge emotional swings? There is no reason to, it achieves nothing other than hitting rock bottom when you bust.
Be rational
Don’t only try to not be as emotionally invested, but also try to become rational about what you do. First of all, it was your decision to play and by deciding so, you should have known the potential downsides. Secondly, the results are out of your control. All you can do is make the best decisions possible in the hands at hand. Once you do that, once you do everything you can outside of the tables as well to improve your game and become the best player you can be, then that’s all you can do. It then doesn’t matter in which state you are in, whether you are on an upswing or on a downswing. You can’t change the stage you are in directly, but you can change the decisions that you make that will then change the state you are in. I posted this on Instagram the other day that explains it well:
If you focus on how good you are, it is just a matter of time till you aren’t. If you focus on how bad you are, you will feel and likely continue to stay bad.
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If you focus on how you can improve at all times, it doesn’t matter where you are in your journey.. you keep moving and progressing.
These are the two main mindset concepts I apply to deal with the ups and downs in poker better. Especially being aware that nothing changes whatever the outcome, has helped me sweating the results less.
Drop stakes & have a more passive bankroll management
Other things you can do if these two things don’t help are dropping stakes. When you drop stakes there will be less pressure on the results, you will become less emotionally invested and your opponents will be weaker which will make it more likely you will win and increase your confidence. Also for a more long lasting fix, you can decide to have a more passive bankroll management. It allows you to not sweat the results, you can comfortably lose knowing that you still have a good bankroll, aka ammunition, left. It allows you to focus on improving and enjoying the game, instead of chasing scores.
Study
Which is another thing that will certainly help: studying. Doubt is one of the biggest causes of tilt, knowing that you didn’t misplay the hand, having that confidence of knowing you are better than your opponents, will make it easier to deal with setbacks. Because you know it is just a matter of time till you get them!
Meditation
Meditation can help you a lot with being more in peace with your feelings, being able to give them a place and embracing them. Being able to recognize how you feel, knowing how to not let it escalate, will help you decreasing it’s effects on your winrate. It will help you losing the minimum, by being able to continue making the best possible decisions on the table but also by knowing when to stop playing for the day. That is one of the biggest differences between crushers and everyone else. It is not so much that their A-game is so much better, but their B, C and D game is much less worse and don’t occur as frequently. Start getting in peace with your feelings and knowing how to recognize them.
These are things that I use, if you still struggle after all this.. it is probably best to take a break and study. Come back with a fresh and curious mind. Anyway, just wanted to share how I deal with these things and maybe it helps some of you. For everyone wondering how I am doing personally, of course it is really nice to have a lot of runs, but it’s still eating at me to not get the scores. Coming time will continue creating as much content as I can for my poker and my general social media accounts. I will be trying to make some more time for studying as well, so most likely won’t be playing and streaming as much as I have been past few weeks.
