Five Self-Destructive Behaviors Guaranteed to Remove All Semblance of Control From Your Game

Players lose for all sorts of reasons. I'm not talking about a mere losing session, or even a protracted losing streak. I'm talking about players who are pathological losers, and unless they remove their blinders and see the world as well as their poker-playing style for all that it is, they will never extricate themselves from the quagmire they've entered.

Some players don't have enough technological know-how to play poker well. But that's easily fixed. If you're new to poker, especially to casino poker, and you don't have any of the attendant problems discussed in just a paragraph or two, your problems are easily rectified. All you need do is learn more about the game. Just start your learning process by reading each and every well-written book on poker you can find. But reading isn't enough. You'll need to supplement your book learning with live play; play in a traditional casino or on the Internet will suffice. After each session, you should deconstruct your play and assess it against the theory you've read about in your collection of books.

You'll gain knowledge as you go, and sooner or later you'll notice that you've become a good player. If this describes you, just stop reading right here. It's the other guys I'm after – the ones who probably know a lot more than you do about poker, but have losing chiseled into their psyches and into their styles of play. They are the players who have voluntarily walked away from any semblance of control over their play and are poorer for it.

We have less control than we'd like, regardless of what we do at the poker table. You do your best to eliminate opponents by betting your good hands, but whenever someone calls and a card is turned, almost anything can happen, and there's not a lot you can do about it. But at least you did something. You took action. Betting or raising is an activity frequently designed to keep your opponent from that random card by making the price of the reward too high in the long run. But there's a legion of poker players who are much more fatalistic than that, and they don't believe in retaining a locus of control in the way that you do – or should.

Here are a few ways they absolve themselves of any responsibility for the quality of their play and the decisions they make during a game. And if you recognize your own playing style here, you're on the right road to fixing things. After all, you really can't defeat a problem until you've become aware of it.

Poker is a Gamble: While gambling may be a style of poker, poker is not gambling – if you define gambling as I do: a bet into fixed and immutable odds that are stacked in favor of someone else.

Even when you do all that you can but find yourself unable to move your opponent in one direction or another, you've done something, and if it doesn't work this time, it might pay dividends next time. What we're talking about here is manipulating the odds. Poker players must put themselves in situations in which the odds are favorable and avoid those situations in which the odds against making a hand exceed the payoff for winning the pot. In other words, if you're a 5-to-1 underdog to make your hand and the pot will pay off only $3 for each $1 invested in it, it's time to fold. That's the essence of poker.

But if you treat poker as a gamble, you'll find yourself playing the game without regard to the odds at hand, and you'll have begun to address poker just as if it were roulette, craps, and baccarat – games in which you have no control over the game and the payoff odds, and therefore figure to lose in the long run.

I Want a Deck Change: In all the years I've been playing poker, the only time I've ever asked for a deck change is if the deck in play is dirty, marked by fingernail creasing or something similar, or is sticky and difficult for the dealer to handle. I've never asked for a deck change after a bad run of cards, or because I just lost a hand I figured to win until someone called a bet or a raise he shouldn't have and caught a miracle card to snatch the pot out from under my nose. Let's face it, we're all smart enough to realize that cards don't think, don't play favorites, and don't have it out for you or in for me. Asking for a deck change only succeeds in slowing down the game while upsetting most of the players at the table.

The Dealer Did It to Me: This is similar to requesting a deck change because you're unhappy with your recent results at the table. While the dealer does shuffle the cards, if he were a master card mechanic with an eye toward cheating, he probably wouldn't be dealing day after day in your game. The dealer is no more responsible for your wins or losses than the man in the moon, and whenever I see a player get upset because a certain dealer is about to rotate over to his table, all I see is a guy who is ready, willing, and able to go on tilt and throw money in everyone else's direction but his own. "Here comes Harry. This dealer always kills me. Earlier today, I lost nearly a rack of chips when he was at our table." Words like that are music to my ears, and I'm hoping to see someone, anyone at all, put a bad beat on him that's guaranteed to trigger the tilt reaction in our hero so that he'll burn through a rack of chips in about 20 minutes.

I Can't Win With Pocket Aces; That's Why I Played 7-6: I love this one, and you see it all the time. Some guy drags a nice pot when he makes two pair with a starting hand like 7-6, and tells the table that since he can't win with good hands, he's going to play trash like that. Winning a nice pot just reinforces his tendencies, and you just know he's going to play all sorts of irrational, weak starting hands for the next 15 minutes because he lost a pot with good cards and won a hand with junk.

I Can't Beat a Table Where Everyone Calls All the Time: This is a cry for fewer players in each pot because the crier didn't win a hand he thought he should have, and he lost because somebody caught something – someone always catches something; isn't that the way it goes? – and our hero's hand failed to hold up. Well, the more players there are in a hand, the more likely it is that each card turned will help someone, and if the next card doesn't help you, it's probably helped at least one of your opponents. So, adjust your play to the realization that one pair seldom wins in a game in which almost everyone plays every hand. If you raise with A-K before the flop and all you see are rags on the flop, don't expect to be able to take the pot by betting. That flop hit someone. It almost always does in family pots.

The truth is simple, and it's two-fold. First, when you're playing against a collection of calling stations, you're going to have to show down the best hand to win. Second, if you can't beat a table full of calling stations over the long haul, whom do you suppose you can beat? Players who call all the time, particularly if they're fairly passive about their play, are the best opponents in the world. Just play boring, mindless, uncreative poker and you'll win. Bet your good hands and don't bluff, and you'll beat this game for a lot of money in due time. Maybe you won't today, but you are almost guaranteed to beat this kind of game in the long run.

We could go on and on with characterizations, but there are probably enough here to serve as a wake-up call for players who have abrogated every iota of control they should exert over the game. If this describes you, it's time to seize your game by the shoulders, shake it out of its doldrums, and get things together again. Focus on the long run. Forget about winning and losing and concentrate on playing properly. I know that's difficult for many and impossible for some, but try it. Your bankroll will thank you for it when you succeed.

Raise your game with Lou Krieger at http://www.royalvegaspoker.com. His newest book, Winning Omaha/8 Poker, is available through Card Player.