I've been playing poker live and online for over a year. Skill-wise I would classify myself as a beginner. I've won on some sites and lost on others, overall about break-even. I have no aspirations to go pro and am pretty content just playing for fun.

My question/problem pertains to my outlook on poker. I find myself in a continuous cycle of love and hate depending on how I am doing. When I do well I am confident, enjoying myself and eager to play more. When I am not doing well, it's really difficult to remain upbeat and continue loading games.

Now I know even the professional players arent 'happy' when things arent going there way or they arent playing their best. But it seems there is some sort of underlying 'love of the game' vibe you get from most successful players.

Overall I do enjoy poker but I would like to iron out some of the emotional highs and lows to something more even keeled. I guess I am looking for some tips on how to remain somewhat upbeat and motivated when running/playing bad. Ty

Focus on decisions rather than results. Results can be misleading in the short term

I'm lucky I've never been a very emotional person in the first place but sometimes if I keep getting sucked out on and running into coolers it can get to me. I will generally just take a break and when I come back I do a session review just to make sure I was making the right decisions taking all factors into account. This game can be brutal at times.

The easiest way, at least for me, was to just play a bunch of tables stacked. All I could do is make (hopefully) good decisions, and then I'd be on to another hand at another table, with no idea how the other hand turned out.

For me the solution is to smile (ie, feel good**) when I make a good decision and frown (ie, feel bad) when I make a bad one - regardless of how it turns out.

Feeling good about something gives your lower brain (which makes decisions) feedback that it did well and should strengthen the triggers that led to that decision. Feeling bad provides negative feedback that makes that decision less likely in future.

If you feel good when you suck out (or bad when you get sucked out on) you are providing exactly the opposite feedback that your brain needs to learn better poker habits.

** Note: smiling makes you feel happy, frowning makes you feel sad - strange but true

Definitely focus on decisions, not results.

That way you get to beat yourself up over things you can actually control.

(Easier said than done, though, for sure.)

Good Luck

It'll help if you're a winning, rather than a break-even player. To accomplish this, do two things:

(1) Don't play for too much money;

(2) Read what SirCuddles says about how to beat the micros. The first six pages contains invaluable information.

When I played online, if I lost I could console myself by comparing the amount I had on a site with the amount I started with.

Your thread title proves that you have quite a good understanding of what to do next. I'm reminded of an exit interview on television. Two players each had AA and went all in. One of them made a flush and won. I don't know the probability (little problem with PokerStove). But the probability of making a flush by the river when starting with two suited cards is 6.5%. The losing player said that when two players each start with AA, they're supposed to split the pot. (Isn't that naive?)

Barry Greenstein would have said something like this: "I made the correct decision. It doesn't bother me how the cards fall." I've heard him say something similar on exit interviews.

Hang in there.

If you shove a four flush and lose, be mad
If you shove an OESD and win, be mad
If you shove AA and lose, be happy
If you shove top set on the flop and win, be happy

Making those moves isn't always wrong. Indeed, they can be the right moves to make against certain players, on certain board textures, and with certain stack and pot sizes. The decision to shove with a flush draw is often good. It's the just the results that aren't always so great.

It all depends of what your goals are; if you are aiming to achieve something, you will be results oriented. When one plays to move up, then that's what one has behind there. When playing, that's not on the top there but the situations and one will be tense there too because it's about immediate results.

That's the reason why there are all kinds of emotions one would like not to be there. The only light on the issue is that I know one will get more relaxed and more comfortable as the positive results keep collecting on some limit and confidence and good feelings go together with it and at some point there will be the minimum of uncomfortable feelings, that is till one moves up again or the game gets tougher or when ever one runs into a (big) losing/non-winning streak.

It's not about non-results orientation, there not being such if one has result goals, and even if one doesn't have one can be tense as it's still about a fight and one is never fully relaxed then. One needs to get long and regular positive results to get the "orientations" to minimums and our system to relax to optimum and then it becomes more of an art than a sport, more a game than a fight, more a pleasure than pain, and then it's most of the time nice to play and one could be said to have achieved the state of creativity etc..

Fair enough.

Laugh at suck-outs.

If you get sucked-out on, you must have got the money in ahead so you likely made a good decision. Don't get mad .. laugh. Villains getting it in bad against you is how you win in the long run.

If you suck-out, laugh cos you won ... but try to think about why you got in bad against the villain and try to avoid it in the future.

The more hands you play, the less you are bothered by results. Make sure you are well rolled for your limit as well.

Enjoy the game, and not just the game.

What inspires people to make 4k posts? I mean really think about that one...

Poker is a life long trip that doesn't always end with a boat, you can get it in with the best hand, and lose to the worst. Balance is an important part of the game, and it's an important part of life.

Enjoy the community, take your game to another level, that's when you truly win, and it's when you start to enjoy the game.

Yes, laughing makes you happy. Being happy trains your brain to do it again.

No no no! You don't want to train your brain to go for suck outs. If you made a correct decision versus villain's range, and they turn over a hand in the range you had them on, and then you hit one of the outs you figured in your assessment, then you can laugh because your decision was good.

But you must never feel pleased with yourself when you make a donkey play and suck out - that should hurt. Beat yourself up as you rake in the pile of chips - if you can do that, then you know you've cured yourself of being results-oriented.

Review hands, if you would play them the same you made the correct decisions cover up villain cards obv. This is very basic and your thought process might be flawed but good way to start

Agreed.

I'm still struggling with this, but when I do get it, there's a lot less pressure on me and I feel more focused on my decision - which in the end makes me feel better.

That's actualy a pretty good call for someone having a tough time of it.