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Don't Be A Sucker
By Annie Duke
Tilting in poker is your biggest enemy. You can crack a pot odds calculator. You can be the best in the world at reading people. You can know opponents’ betting strategies as if they were your own. But if you don’t have your emotions under control, you will be broke to poker. Your A-game can be one of the best in the world, but if you tilt regularly that will not matter, because if you are a tilter, you are not playing your A-game a good portion of the time.
Poker is a game of cold, calculating decision-making. Every time the action is to you, you have to make a decision. If you make better decisions than your opponents, you will win. Simple.
Everyone knows you should never make an important decision when you are emotional. We make poor decisions when we are angry or hurt or sad. When you are emotional at the poker table the same thing holds. We make rash decisions there too. When we are tilting, the chances that our opponents are making better decisions than we are is much greater. And when we are making worse decisions than our opponents, we lose. It doesn’t matter how great you’re A-game is if you are playing your C-game a significant portion of the time.
So how can you stop tilting? I mean, your aces lost again, right? For the fifth time in one session, some bozo called you as a 5:1 dog and you lost. Who wouldn’t tilt under those conditions? The answer should be you.
You need to look at poker as one long game spanning your whole playing career. In the long run we all get dealt the same cards. The people who play those cards best win in the long term. The people who don’t play those cards well will lose in the long term. In the short term, a bad player might suck out on you five hands in one session, but it’s those very suckouts that make them losing players. If you are in a game where people are consistently getting their money in bad, while you are getting your money in good, it doesn’t matter whether you are losing some of those situations; you are a favorite in the game – and the game is good.
The next time someone calls your all-in with 7-4 and cracks your aces, instead of getting angry and dejected, rejoice! If no one ever sucked out on you, it would mean that you’re not playing in a good game. Rejoice that opponents are willing to get their money in so bad against you. That is what makes poker a game you can win at. That is what makes you better than other players. Focus on what suckouts mean for the quality of the game you are in and bad beats will seem less like emotionally- charged disasters and more like bright, neon signs flashing “Great Game” with an arrow pointing to your table.
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