Ah, the poker steam. If a poker enthusiast claims never to have peered down the shadow of an approaching steam – they are either telling a lie or they have not been competing long enough. This does not mean of course that each and every one has gone on steam in the past, a number of people have great control and take their losses as a defeat and keep it at that. To be a powerful poker gambler, it’s especially critical to treat your wins and your losses in an identical manner – with no emotion. You compete in the match the same way you did following a hard beat like you would after winning a huge hand. Many of the poker pros are not tempted by tilting following a bad loss as they are highly seasoned and you must be to.
You must understand that you cannot win each and every hand you are in, regardless if you are heavily favored. Hands which typically cause people go on tilt are hands that you were the favorite or at least believed you were up until you were hit and you burned a big chunk of your bankroll. Bad defeats are bound to happen. Accept that reality right now, I will say it once more – if your brother enjoys cards, if your father plays cards, if your grandma plays cards – They have all had bad losses at some point. It is an inevitable outcome of participating in Texas Holdem, or for that matter any kind of poker.
Seeing as we are assumingly (almost all of us) in the game for a single purpose – to acquire money, it certainly makes sense that we would wager accordingly to maximize our profit potential. Now let us say you are up $100 off of a $100 deposit, and you suffer a huge blow in a NL game and your stack is down to $120. You’ve squandered eighty dollars in a round where you were sure to pick up $200two hundred dollars when you decided to go all-in on the flop and held a ten to one edge. And that amateur! He bled you dry on the river? – Well hold it right there. This is a quintessential choice for a fresh bettor to begin tilting. They just blew too much cash on one hand that they should have won and they are aggravated