Register

Start a blog, write comments and discuss in the forum.

Username

Password

Learn to play poker, poker school, poker guide, poker articles

Prevent bad periods

Introduction

All of us have experienced these bad periods when everything is against you. Your pocket aces do loose all in preflop every time, you’re running into pocket aces when you have pocket kings every time, outdrawn by every flush and straight draw, yeah the list could be longer.

The scary thing about these periods is that it has not a chosen time, it could just last for a day for some, mean while it could last for more than 2 months for some, but don’t worry hopefully everyone will experience the same amount of negative variance.

Persons who will handle these periods the best way have a great advantage on other players who handle it worse. Why? Well, there are a lot of players who tilt a lot when they’re in bad periods, so loosing 10 buyins, in a day is nothing unusual for them. Persons who handle these periods better maybe manage to just loose 3 buyins and understand that it’s time to quit or step down in limits, there’s a big difference there.

Many of these persons who tilted and lost 10 buyins in a day will ask them self afterwards “Was I unlucky for loosing today or what?” and of course they answer “Of course it was, I lost my two first buyins because of 2 outers!”.

Ok, then I want to ask them “Ok, so how the hell did you lose the other 8 buyins?”, because a lot of tilted players will forget about that because of the tilt. It’s a big difference between loosing 2 buy ins then loosing 10 buyins, but they do just think about the two bad beats and forgets about the 8 other buyins they gave away on tilt.

Tilt = a player who starts playing off his a-game, often very loose and aggressive, because he experience that he’s unlucky or because he’s really upset by something.

From a winning player to a losing player

So how is that possible? Become a losing player when he was a winning player before. That is a very easy answer, the tilt control. That is often the thing that differ the best players from the good players, they handle with bad periods in a great way.

It’s the tilt that makes the ones without tilt control lose a big part of their bankroll in a session, and they have lost most of it by playing bad, and haven’t been unlucky at all. Many players have different tolerance limits, maybe a limit of how many buyins you can lose before you start feeling uncomfortable or with other words start tilting, and the only thing way to prevent that is to start controlling yourself better to get a higher tolerance limit, or you should quit playing and take a break.

So how long should I take a break? This depends for how long you’re tilted, if you feel that you’re off your a-game you shouldn’t play and this differs a lot from player to player in how long you’re tilted. So the main point here is to taking a break until you feel comfortable and start playing yours a-game again.

So why shouldn’t I play when I’m not playing my a-game? Well your edge isn’t that big that you think, and by beating your highest stake you’re playing in you should really play your a-game.

What tilt does

Tilt is a bad beast, and everyone does experience it from time to time but in different grades. The tilt do change your play way more than you think, because you’re starting to play a lot looser and a lot more aggressive in other words more like a maniac. You’re putting yourself into very marginal situations and you think you’re unlucky when you lose them but in fact you aren’t.

Afterwards this is interesting actually, because a lot of persons start thinking about what the hell they did when they lost 10 buyins in 2 hours, and they start to analyze their play and they get to the point that they played like an idiot. Ok fair enough.

But it’s here where people make a big mistake by changing their way to play, because of this bad period and tilting. They adjust their game in the opposite way of tilting; they start to play very tight and very passively. They start to waiting for the nuts and stacking their opponents but that won’t happen because you get this really bad image (tight, passive). So that’s something you really shouldn’t do.

How do we prevent bad periods?

This of course differs a lot from player to player, but the best way for everyone to prevent it is to start practice your self control and by so getting a better tilt control. There’s very few that is able to handle this, and it does usually take some time. This can be done by for example when you have a really hard time on the table you play on and you managed yourself to lose 4 buyins. Ok, that’s a start, but how about trying to lose just 3 buyins the next time? I don’t mean you should quit directly when you reach losing some certain limit of buyins, I mean in the way that you quit when you feel like you’re playing worse and take a break. You should put up rules in the way you feel is best, and you should follow them. Then you have started to get better tilt control. It’s all about understanding yourself, find the beast (tilt) and kill it.

Another good thing to do when you’re in a really bad period, is to drop down in stakes and start beating worse players, and building up the confidence again, because I can guarantee you that you will need it.

If nothing of the previous tips work, you should considering taking a break. Nothing could be better sometimes then a needy break to collect new energy and confidence. A great tips if you’re taking a break is to start analyzing your play, you will then find leaks in your play that you can repair when you sit down at the table again. Preparing yourself better.

Ok, that’s everything for this time. I hope you enjoyed the article and that it was to some good use.

Marcus Vretling Pistelli,
Pokerhunting.com & Pokerjakt.se

Comments

There are no comments yet, be the first one to write one!

Top bonuses

This is a list of selected signup-bonuses, just to click on the offer you like for more information.

	500% up to $10000
	500% up to $5000
	600% up to $1500
	% up to $1500
	500% up to $1200

Poker Software

With Poker Usher, You win more money against bad players. For a poker player who has left the absolute beginner stage, finding good tables is possibly the most important factor. Poker Usher assists players in this essential undertaking. While you play, Poker Usher registers everything that takes place, including board cards and betting as well as any hole cards that are displayed in showdowns.

Gametype

Texas Hold'em	Omaha
7 card stud	5 card stud
5 card draw	Omaha Hi / Lo

Payment	Currency
Accepting US players

Register

Prevent bad periods

Introduction

From a winning player to a losing player

What tilt does

How do we prevent bad periods?

Comments

Top bonuses

Poker Software

Gametype

Texas Hold'em

Omaha

7 card stud

5 card stud

5 card draw

Omaha Hi / Lo

Payment

Currency

Accepting US players

Poker Articles

Recommended Poker Rooms