Analyzing defeat

Author: Marc wortman

To be honest, my first games online did not go well, even though I was losing a small amount of money. It was easy to get along with the online format, but still had to adapt to the differences. There is nothing more offensive than losing at poker. Losing anything is annoying, but losing at poker means losing money, and losing money is personal. Losing poker, like in life, means not only bad decisions, but sometimes bad luck. The biggest part in analyzing your last game or streak of poker losses - at home, online or in a casino - is being able to be clear about whether the reason is bad play or bad luck.

Wrong rivals.

No matter how well you play poker, it's still relative. A good player will still lose money if great poker players are sitting at the table with him. And a bad player will win if his opponents are even worse players than himself. The fact is that there are eight people sitting at the table, for example, some of them understand the game deeper and therefore are stronger than you. Others have less understanding of the game and are unlikely to get good results if they play many games.

Losing money at poker sometimes means that you are just not at your table. There are two ways here. Or you should move to another table. Or consider it as an opportunity to practice and, as a result, improve your skills by continuing to play at this table. Provided that you learn something and highlight the cause of your failures.

Bad luck or bad game.

To find out if your last loss was due to bad luck, try to scroll through every detail in your head. How did you lose? Who won against you? With what cards did your opponent beat you? Did you play correctly before you saw the river card? Were there outs in your favor before your opponent got this card?

It’s easiest to say to yourself that good cards just didn’t come. If you really didn't get good cards, then you shouldn't have gotten into the game with bad ones. In poker, it is important not only to maximize winnings, but also to try to minimize the loss of money. Before blaming the cards for everything, you need to clearly understand how you lost and why. Here are some examples.

Example No. 1.

You are playing Texas Nold'em and have a pair of aces in your hand. Nothing scares you on the flop except two clubs. You enter the game with just one opponent who you believe is counting on a flush. Every round you place your bets and he answers. On the river, he catches the fifth club and has the best combination. Did you play this hand wrong? No. Is your opponent lucky? Yes. Maybe it was worth answering your bets in his place, but not when only two players entered the game. You did the right thing to go to the river.

Example No. 2.

You play Texas Nold'em and have 7 and 8 clubs in your hand and you are already making a flush on the turn. You have only one opponent left and starts raising the turn and river. You make allowances for the fact that he has a strong hand, but not as much as you, and answer.

You show up, and it turns out that he also has a flush with only the highest card. You lost, did you play this hand wrong? Yes. You didn't allow your opponent to have the same hand as you. Is your opponent lucky? No. He's as lucky as you were when you made your flash.

In the first example, you played correctly but lost because of bad luck. Your opponent shouldn't have called you back if you could have made a big enough bet. Some people prefer no-limit poker because it is enough to make a big bet for an opponent who is only relying on the river card to fold. The next time you play the same hand in the same situation, play it the same way, because this time you were just out of luck. In the second example, you simply did not fully read the situation. You were probably very excited when you got your flush, but sometimes it happens that in Hold'em your flush is interrupted by another flush. During the draw, there were hints that there is a better hand, but you did not give much importance to these hints and therefore lost money.

Tournaments.

Mostly tournaments are shown on TV. A fair number of tournaments are also played both online and at home. Don't let yourself talk about whether you are a good player or a bad player based on your tournament performance alone. The tournament has a small number of winners and a huge number of losers. If you've played a lot of tournaments and haven't won a single one, don't say you're a bad player. You should balance your tournament play with your regular poker game. It’s not the worst that you lose in the tournament, the worst is that you lose in the long run.

What to do?

Not every player analyzes their losses. Analyze yours. If you focus only on your winnings, you will win money, but for how long?