The swings of poker

There are many aspects of poker one must be able to handle in order to succeed and earn money. There is the obvious aspect of patience. If you don't have patience and can't sit at a table and fold every hand you look at for an hour, you will be looking at felt a lot. Patience also comes into play when you are actually in a hand. If you loose a hand to someone that won on the river or hit runner runner for the straight or flush, and then go right back after that player or any player to regain your chips, you're not going to be successful. I've seen a lot of players go on tilt over one hand (I'm guilty of it to) and then the next thing you know, they are out of the game.

This coincides with the next aspect that I have trouble with in poker. The swings of poker. Whether it be the way the cards are falling or how your bankroll is fluctuating, the swings of poker can be disheartening and frustrating. For example, yesterday, I couldn't get a good hand to save my life. I saw a lot of 8 5 off, K 2 off, and more Ace/rag's then I could dream of. But based on my position or my chip stack, I just couldn't gamble and play with these cards. Then to add to the frustration, I saw 4 6 off twice and both times folded. Of course, two 6's hit on the flop both times.

So as my chip stack dwindled and I got busted out of tournament after tournament outside of the money, I decided to take a break and come back to it in about an hour. After that break, I was still getting cold cards and whenever I would get a good hand, everyone would fold around to me. Winning the blinds isn't bad unless you only win $0.35.

However, finally, after playing poker for almost 3 hours, I woke up with pocket Kings. Of course I raised and made it $1 to go. I was then re-raised and it was back to me. I had to pay $1.5 more to go. So I doubled that, making it $5 just to see the flop. I was called. I put my opponent on a pocket paid immediately, but I knew it was smaller than my kings. If it were Aces, he would have pushed all-in after my re-raise.

Flop comes down 8d 2h 10d. I push all-in for another $18. His hesitation in calling me tells me I am ahead. I've already told myself he doesn't have Aces and he doesn't have a set because he is thinking too much. He eventually calls and turns up Jacks.

My Kings hold up and just like that, I double up in my cash game funds for the day. After 3 hours of loosing money I come out ahead for the day.

So remember, patience and knowing that you're not going to win every hand will help you out in the future. Of course there are many other aspects to winning in poker, but we will talk about how to handle those later.