Maybe one day I'll know enough about poker to offer you guys some strategy advice. In the meantime …

Recently, I've been playing a fair bit of PLO. Apart from being a nice break from Holdem, it's given me plenty of opportunities to think about the mental side of poker. (More opportunities than I'd ideally like, probably, but that's the sort of game PLO is.)

Just wanted to repeat some of the basics. Nothing I'm saying here is revolutionary but maybe it'll serve as a useful reminder.

Decisions >> Results
Provided you played a hand as well as you could have played it, beating yourself up over what cards happened to tumble off the deck is not only pointless, but unkind to yourself, and also – maybe most importantly – wastes valuable mental energy that you could be spending on way more productive stuff, like reviewing more hands.

Results are what happened in the past. They don't affect the future. Fretting over them is a bad idea.

Decisions, on the other hand, are the future because unless you do anything to change the decisions you took last time, you're going to take them again next time. And if those decisions were wrong last time, they're going to be wrong next time, too.

Forget about results. Concentrate on making good decisions. $$$ will follow.

Don't take it personally
It's kind of laughable, the way guys convince themselves that the random number generator is out to get them. Or it would be, if it wasn't so ridiculous. The RNG is a chunk of code sitting on a server in some dark basement somewhere. It doesn't even know you exist, let alone care about you and your silly card game. Frankly, it's pretty egotistical to suspect otherwise. In the long run, everybody gets the same cards. It's not about you. It's about how you play.

Think equity not entitlement
One of the reasons guys go on tilt is that they flop a monster and still end up losing the hand. They see that flop and think, “Wow, this pot is mine!” And then when they lose the hand, they start smashing mice and making all sorts of dumb plays for the next fifty hands. It'd be much better for their overall game if, instead, they saw the flop and thought, “Wow, that's nice, I have 80% equity in the pot. Four out of five times I'm going to win, and one out of five times I'll lose, so getting money in the middle is the obvious thing to do.”

If you were playing live, having good equity on the flop wouldn't give you the right to simply reach forward and start dragging those chips. So don't do it mentally when you're playing on-line either.

Avoid Groupthink
People learn stuff in different ways.

Here in Beginners, lots of guys ask things like 'what's the best way to improve my game?' and straight away guys reply with 'you should do this …' or 'you should do that … ' when all they're really saying is 'I did this and I think it worked for me.' But maybe that guy's learning style isn't the same as your learning style. So find what works for you. And bear in mind that what works for you may change over time.

Similar comments apply to things like multitabling, bankroll management, taking shots, listening to music while playing, etc etc. Guys will tell you what works for them, which is great. Don't assume that you should do the same. Ignore anybody who tries to tell you that their way is the only way. Try different stuff. Find what you're comfortable with.


The mental side of poker is HUGE. Ignore it at your peril.

Good Luck.

nice post, AWESOME TITLE, i lol at it, thinking this gonna be a tilt post about ya losing the marbles! Its something i've been thinking about alot recent due to downswing and moving down stakes!

Great post, thanks.

I find myself thinking 'this pot be mine!' when I flop a big hand, guess it's time to change that

very nice post sir.

Nice poast. I would add that, for me, being in the right frame of mind before I sit down is a big factor. Often, I will have a ****ty day at work or something and get home and think I'll play poker for half an hour and often lose before I've even sat down.

Being in a bad mood or tired or not prepared to think or concentrate from the off contriubutes to many of my losing sessions.