What emotions do you feel when you lose a ton of money, and also what emotions do you feel when you win a ton? Im really new to poker and want to know what it feels like to have these things happen to you. Thanks!

I don't feel anything.

.

Lose a lot of money:


Win a lot of money:

I touch myself.

It's always nice to win money, but it never feels as good as the pain you feel when you lose. Of course it depends on the amounts you win/lose.

I once had 100 dollars left in my account and same night I booked 2 final tables and scored 3200$. That felt awesome! But winning 10 buy-ins in cashgames just feels like "mefh".. Ending a session 10+ buyins down I want to kill myself and punch my self in the face for not quitting earlier.. I blame everything from variance to the weather outside. Im currently ultra busto, but a year back I had a 20k bankroll. Win 10k, hookers, cocain, dom perignon and parties, lose 10k stay in bed for 2 days and not get up.

Now im playing micros trying to make rent. Poker is one hell of a game.

There are so many different parts to this question, imo.

losing money always sucks, but it has different levels and degrees of suck depending on how much is at stake, if it's a tournament or a cash game, if I lost money b/c I played bad or if I lost money b/c I played well.

Winning always kicks ass, but also has different levels of kick-assery depending on the previously mentioned variables.

Here's how I feel, sorr if it's tl. if so, ;dr.

1. Winning a tournament (I mean an MTT) or even making a very deep run and making it into the good part of the money (last 5 or so in a final table) is an incredible feeling. blasting through a couple thousand people and remembering your starting stack, the blinds, and all of the difficult swings you had throughout the tourney, you begin to realize that, at least once in your life, you probably did a few things right with the cards dealt to you at the time. Winning the tournament itself is like getting a tugjob from Salma Hayek (Dusk Til Dawn era) while you're on ecstacy. you feel on top of the world and you, at least for a brief time, entertain ideas on what you'll spend your monies on.

2. Havin a winning cash game session for a decent amount of money (at least for me) doesn't feel nearly as good as a tournament win. I don't know if it's the whole placement thing of 1st, 2nd, etc etc, but it's just not the same. However, a good session does make you feel immediately better than everyone at your table (OMG especilly live). The money from one grind doesn't really feel as awesome as seeing the money add up after a longer stretch of time, which is why some of us play cash in the first place; to, over a long period of time, come out ahead. That being said, if you're just a casual player, going to the casino with 200 dollars @ a 1/2 and leaving with like 1.6k is ****ing awesome, and feels like the earlier mentioned tugjob.

3. Losing a big buy in to a tournament sucks balls. it hurts, and the degree of hurt depends (at least for some) on how you went out and when you went out. The sting of a bad beat hurts a ****load when you lose a big buy in for a tournament, but the sting doesn't hurt nearly as bad as the long term annoyance with yourself when you realize that your ****ty play is what got you to the rail. It's a terrible feeling, losing that buy in because you tried to bluff all your chips to a calling station, made a crying call when you were obviously beaten, or when you let a pot get out of hand when you were just marginally ahead. It hurts especially when it's a big tournament that you saved up for and paid in cash and travelled to a casino for.

4. a losing session in a cash game sucks balls, too. watching your bankroll sink to the ground is a terrible thing to watch, and it's often times too much for your average grinder. Some will steady grind back up because they never lose their cool. Others will turn off the computer/leave the casino and call it a night. These people don't hurt so bad when losing a lot of money. It may very well still hurt, but they probably know they are better off than who I'm about to talk about. Others go on tilt... Badly. Tilting with large amounts of money and continuesly losing more and more makes many people feel like they have to earn it back. They begin by opening more tables, then they decide to raise the limits to make the wins fast, maybe moving to quick games they aren't very good at. This leads to Level-9-super mega astro-tilt or whateve Phil Laak's crazy ass calls it. And then the bankroll is gone. Losing your entire roll feels like that Salma Hayek tugjob was replaced by a Cactus Man from Super Mario World on SNES tugjob. Some get physically sick. Others get shakey. Some throw computers out of windows. None of it feels good. It's really hard to explain, but losing a large amount of money because of lack of self control doesn't feel like anything when you're losing it until the very end when you realize it's too late.... and you realize you've been running a tank off of pure desperation. It is at that point that the rage fire dies down and the guilt mobile parks in front of your house.



so, in short, winning a lot of money is like getting an HJ from a hot celebrity. Losing a lot of money is not.

Ain't no mountain higher, ain't no valley lower.

I'm just a grinder and have become somewhat neutral to the ups and downs of the game

Abs(pain_of_losing) > thrill_of_winning

i just can speak for myself
winning= feeling good
losing= feeling bad

When I lose boatloads of money, I feel really great. I mean just super happy.

When I win money no matter how big, I just want to puke my ****ing guts out.

its like making love to a hot chick then someone runs in and stuffs warm rhino **** right down your ****ing throat

It's like depositing half of your yearly income on FTP after BF.



- NMHU.

Winning:


Losing:

Winning:



Not Winning:

winning:



losing:

its hard to know if im winning or losing with all the wanking but my neighbours are happy i got new curtains

feels good man

There's no better adrenaline rush than playing under rolled or taking a shot or whatever and winning a $1400 pot when u normally play PLO 50 and give PLO 600 a go. Get it all in 3 way on the flop and turn the nuts. As the cards flip over you can't really see who's in front and ur heart starts racing then boooooom gin card on the turn for you and you can tell by now the other 2 are drawing dead before the river comes.
Prob be same for anyone playing a lot higher than they normally do Eg NL 1k playing NL 20k?
There's also the feeling the other side of the spectrum where you wake up and wish you just would've gone to bed at 2am instead of 6 am. If you had you would've been able to play poker today with around 2.6k in your account, but you can't because your balance is $0. It's like a knot in ur stomach and you feel a bit sick, you don't wanna get up but you can't get back to sleep. You should have 50+ buy ins in your account for your normal game but instead you lost 4 buy ins playing PLO 600 and think the world was against you, poker is rigged and just feel really really down. Don't think it's quite "depression" but I don't think it's far off it?
2.6k prob peanuts to some ppl but I suppose if you put it into buy ins for your normal game it would be losing 52 buy ins. That's a lot to everybody if you look at it that way?

There's no better adrenaline rush than playing under rolled or taking a shot or whatever and winning a $1400 pot when u normally play PLO 50 and give PLO 600 a go. Get it all in 3 way on the flop and turn the nuts. As the cards flip over you can't really see who's in front and ur heart starts racing then boooooom gin card on the turn for you and you can tell by now the other 2 are drawing dead before the river comes.
Prob be same for anyone playing a lot higher than they normally do Eg NL 1k playing NL 20k?
There's also the feeling the other side of the spectrum where you wake up and wish you just would've gone to bed at 2am instead of 6 am. If you had you would've been able to play poker today with around 2.6k in your account, but you can't because your balance is $0. It's like a knot in ur stomach and you feel a bit sick, you don't wanna get up but you can't get back to sleep. You should have 50+ buy ins in your account for your normal game but instead you lost 4 buy ins playing PLO 600 and think the world was against you, poker is rigged and just feel really really down. Don't think it's quite "depression" but I don't think it's far off it?
2.6k prob peanuts to some ppl but I suppose if you put it into buy ins for your normal game it would be losing 52 buy ins. That's a lot to everybody if you look at it that way?

Well,....poker is only about a 2 year experience in my life, whereas playing
high stakes blackjack seriously has been over 35 years or so. The winning and losing part of it can feel the same, i'd imagine.

I will say the more your play either, you HAVE to treat every session as
a separate event, and play the very best you can for that session. It sucks to
lose,...ALWAYS,.....but can't be totally "unexpected" either. It's part of the game,.....either poker or blackjack.

My biggest wins and losses have been at blackjack, where i usually played
in the big pit. (higher limits). I usually played at my local casino about
100 miles away, but it has a top limit of just $2,000 per hand. I only played
that limit once i got up serious money. Usually played $100 to $700 per hand
until then.

However, in Atlantic City (about 275 miles away), i would make the trip a few times per year because they had a usual table maximum bet of $5,000 per hand. So when i got up decent money it was easier to really push! Best ever day was close to $175K,.....but it's possible to lose some serious money also. If you're going to play either game seriously, you have to be able to accept the losses and still function!

I remember a few years ago i was invited down to the Trump Taj for a
$100K "winner take all" tourney which had only 36 players,.....and NO buy in! I had never played there before, but i suspect my name had come up from my serious play at Bally's,....which is where i usually played.

Anyway, i get thru the preliminary round and reach the final table, but we never played the final round. Someone relayed the sad story of one of the Taj casino folks being shot and killed by a nut at the casino, and how in a previous tourney like this the final table decided to each take $10K, and donate $40K to the family of the slain worker as his son would be going to college soon. This murder was around July of 2009 as i recall, and our tourney was in middle of November 2009. An earlier tourney had done the same thing, so a $80K donation to the family was pretty nice to that point.

I really didn't mind anyway, as it was a winner take all event. Recieving a guarenteed $10K, on top of the $23K or so i was up playing on the
tables while i was waiting for the tourney to start, was not a bad days pay!

So i go home that night with $33K more than i arrived with, which represented
more than a years takehome pay from my "real" job!

The following week i went down again to the Trump Taj with a $100K cashere's check, and deposited it into my account to draw off of. Unfortunately, i ran into a terrible 5 or 6 hour session. No matter what i tried, moving tables, switching up my hands from 1 to 2 or back, playing at minimum $100 a hand for awhile,......after the 5 or 6 hours i was DOWN about
$56K!

I was totally bumbed out with the card runs, and felt like the dealers were all
super hot and i was getting killed! I mumbled to myself "why don't you just shoot me now and get it over with".

Well, i never thought for a moment the dealer had heard me, but about 15 minutes later the dealer goes on break. A few minutes later the pit boss (lady) comes over to me with TWO security guards, and said i was being asked to leave!

I asked what i had done, and she said "One of our dealers felt threatened by you,.....something about you were going to shoot her!"

Well, i KNEW now the dealer had only heard enough to get it all wrong. I explained to the pit boss that for the last 5 or 6 hours the dealers had been beating me up pretty good, and i was down $56K. I mentioned i felt i was getting "killed", and had mumbled to myself in frustration that the dealer should shoot ME now, to get it over with quickly!

The pit boss said, "We'll,.....we take any threats seriously around here, especially since one of our own was murdered several months ago!"

I said: "I know,......i played last week in a blackjack invitational tournament,
and we donated $40K of the prize pool to that family!"

She looked surprised, and decided to let me play on,......but not before the two security guards looked thru my "man bag" i had on my shoulder to carry
extra cash and some personal effects like toothbrush and paste, checkbook, blood pressure meds, etc.

......and then they left me to play on.

About 1/2 hour later i FINALLY caught a turn in the table dynamics, and began
a 3 hour climb out of the $56K hole,......and cashed out about $86K ahead!
Now that's a hell-of-a turnaround!!!!

I always wondered if that pit boss got chewed out, .....or fired!

Sometimes you don't get a tournaround, and get hit with a loss. I remember on one of my trips to Bally's in Atlantic City i deposited another $100K casheres check, and got hammered for about $76K. Now that's an ouch, as
it represented over 2 years gross income from my regular job!

This was on a Friday, and i will say it was an especially long drive home. I decided
the very next day to take the remaining $24K cash from that original $100K check, and work at getting ahead at my local casino. (Turning Stone in New York State).

I knew i could still play well, accepted the losses when they come as good as anyone, and got back in. I started my table play there with $10K in chips at a double deck $100-$2000 max table, along with 3 and sometimes 4 other players.

After about an hour the whole table was doing real well, and i was asked to continue to cut the decks since it seemed my cuts were working the best for
everyone!

We all played thru the night until about 7:00AM in the morning. After i got up initially about $50K i went to 2 hands of $2,000 each for the rest of the night.
I did this right after one of the players decided to leave around 3:00AM with
$30K he didn't want to risk anymore. My extra hand kept the table "running" the same!

By 7:00AM i was getting really tired anyway, and my several full chip stacks was starting to collect a lot of table watchers. These chips were orange "pumpkins:, bigger than the other chips and worth a cool $1,000 each. I have to say 5 1/2 stacks of "pumpkins" is a sight most folks never get to see,......hope you all get there someday!

I ended up $102K for the night, and represented the very best trip i've ever had at this casino. It's much harder here to get up that kind of money, because of the $2K maximum hand limit. Atlanic City's $5K max allows a hot
streak to build your roll much faster!

The other 3 remaining players were each up at least $40K,.....one closer to $60K. When i quit,....they all quit and followed me to the cage! lol

About an hour before we all quit one of the other players was nervous his wife
would be mad at him, as he was supposed to be home to drive them both to church on Sunday morning,......he wasn't going to make it! I looked down at his stack of maybe $55K profit at that time,.......and mentioned that i thought
he'd be able to somehow make it up to her!

Anyway,.....the point of all this is there ARE going to be losing sessions,....
.....ALWAYS! Expect nothing less,......accept them,....but get over them!

Start every session relaxed, well rested and having eaten a healthy meal. And
don't dwell on the past. This truly is a new session, and if you do you part and play either game well,......can build a serious bankroll.

Oh,....a big part of that is a lesson i learned 35 years ago,.....DON"T PLAY WITH MONEY YOU CAN"T AFFORD TO LOSE<>>>E V E R!

You will play scared, and will NOT make the best decisions.