Turning Off The Frustration
One of the biggest problems for just about ever player out there, regardless of skill, is the frustration factor. No matter how much we practice, read, learn and resist, the act of getting frustrated can easily overturn all reasonable thoughts and result in us making poor decisions at the poker table. These frustrations can come from many sources such as getting bullied by another player, running cold on a deck and even just general tension and uneasiness. Can it be avoided? Not completely, so really the only choice any of us have is to try to get these emotions in some sort of controllable state as soon as we feel them starting to come on.
When dealing with frustrations caused by another player at the table, the only real solution is to try and ignore them, as hard as that may be. If someone is constantly singling you out, stealing your blinds, insulting your play, your first reaction is going to be to sink down to their level and either mimic their behavior or play back at them far too aggressively, which can just add to your anger if end up losing more hands as a result. No one likes these types of players, so you’re probably not the only one at the table that wants to gang up on the guy and take all his chips. If the player is just super aggressive you can’t really get upset with his playing style, all you need to do is just adjust your own game a little to accommodate his methods. However if he’s being very over the top in terms of nasty language and behavior, don’t put up with it any longer than you want to and just call for a floor manager to come issue a warning, which should put a quick end to that.
As for frustrations that come from non-opponent instances, such as running unlucky in a series of hands or not catching a lot of good cards, the best medicine is to actively work on building up your patience. Even the top pros will hem and haw all the time out of frustration when they can’t catch a premium hand, but at the same time they probably won’t let it affect their overall play either. The only way to get use to dealing with the frustrations of a cold deck is to get enough overall poker experience under your belt to understand that these types of situations happen to all players and that you just need to be patient and wait for the cards to come, even if that means stepping away from the table for awhile. The mental break will give you a chance to clear your head, and hopefully the deck will be more in your favor by the time you sit back down.
Chris Iaquinta
