What Is The Biggest Poker Motivator?

What is the biggest motivator – winning or losing?

What is more likely to motivate you to play another hand of poker – winning or losing? The question has been the basis of a number of recent psychological studies, and the answer is not as clear cut as you might suppose.

Intuitively, we might think that if you are on a successful run and playing well, you will be more of a mind to keep playing and keep winning, while if things are not going your way, the inclination will be more to throw in your cards, quite literally, and try something else for a while.

If only the human brain was that simple – in fact, many studies suggest that the opposite more often applies.

Triumphing over adversity

Motivation is a funny thing. It can push us to achieve the seemingly impossible, and if we fail, we will just try all the harder. This applies to all sorts of human endeavors, but a card game like poker provides a perfect example. The mixture of chance and skill that is involved means any good player knows a good result is just around the corner. And with today’s ability to play online at sites like https://livecasino.com/, there is no need to hang around stewing while we wait for the next game.

There is also the factor that if you’re losing, you want to break the cycle and finish on a high, so you will be more inclined to play on.

Quit while you’re ahead?

If you are winning, there is a greater propensity to take the “quit while you’re ahead” approach. However, there are deeper reasons that run beyond mere superstition that might mean your motivation drops when you are winning.

That human desire to triumph over adversity we mentioned earlier can certainly be strong. But once you achieve what you set out to do, it does the mental equivalent of kicking off its shoes, lighting a cigarette and settling down to watch TV for a while. It is as if your brain is saying: “You won, great job. Now, what shall we do next?”

Focus on the cards

Ultimately, for the best poker players, winning or losing is a factor to be compartmentalized and put away for later consideration. Whether at the screen or the table, all that matters should be to make the right decisions based on the cards in their hands. If only it were that easy, we would all be winners!

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