Fear is the Enemy

At the poker table, being overly emotional will cost you money, and one of the most expensive emotions is fear. Unlike anger, which often comes in short bursts as a result of a specific trigger, usually a bad beat, fear tends to stay with many players throughout an entire session.

If you want to become a world-class player, you need to be fearless on the felt. So, here's a list of the most common fears in poker, the mistakes they lead to, and what I believe you can do to overcome them.

Fear of looking foolish: For many players, it seems that saving face is more important than making money. This fear prevents players from following their instincts when the correct decision does not conform to the most common line in a given situation. A player who doesn't want to look foolish won't raise with a less than perfect hand when he senses weakness, nor is he likely to make a thin call when he thinks his opponent is bluffing. The best way to get over this fear is to build confidence in your decision-making abilities and to gain experience in taking risks when it feels right to do so. Playing online will help you with this because the Internet provides a form of anonymity. Also, you should always remember that you don't need to justify your actions to anyone but yourself. Analyze each situation as it comes and make your decision based on all of the information you have and not on what others might think of you for it.

Fear of losing: I don't think I've ever met anyone who would say that he enjoys losing, but in poker there is always a chance that you will lose. You don't have to like losing, but you shouldn't be afraid of it. When you're afraid to lose, you become afraid to take risks, and as we all know, no risk equals no reward. If you're playing with money that you are uncomfortable with losing, you need to drop down in stakes. You should care about the money you are risking, but you shouldn't be afraid of losing it. You need to be willing to put every chip you have on the line when the situation calls for it. You need to be able to take a stand against bullies and call them down. You need to see your chips as weapons to be used against your opponents, rather than little trinkets for you to collect and keep.

Fear of being outdrawn: This is probably the most common fear that plagues many a player. After taking numerous bad beats, players begin to fear that any and all draws held by their opponents will materialize. This fear translates into huge bets designed to cause opponents to fold their draws. By overbetting and forcing your opponent to fold her draw, you are actually causing her to make the correct decision. In poker, you profit when an opponent makes an incorrect decision, so huge protective bets are actually hurting and not helping your bottom line. The trick is to bet just enough to make it mathematically incorrect for an opponent to call with a draw. All you need to create is a slight mathematical edge for yourself, and over time it will translate into profit. Let's look at an example:

The game is $5-$10 no-limit hold'em. The average stack is more than $1,000, so everyone is playing pretty deep. You raise to $50 from early position with the A Q. Two players call and the flop is A Q 7. It's a very loose table, and you're confident that you have the best hand right now, but there are a few draws out there. There is $165 in the pot. How much should you bet?

Well, if you're really afraid of being outdrawn, you'll probably fire a $200-plus bet out there and everyone will fold. This is bad news; you want a drawing hand to call at a bad price so that you can maximize your profit. If you bet $100 instead, the best drawing hand out there, the K J, may believe it's worth a call, and so will the ace-high flush draw that might be out there, or even a naked K-J. The reality, of course, is that none of those hands have the proper odds to call. This is how you maximize your profits. But remember that if the draws hit, you need to be very careful and just get to the river as cheaply as possible, or even fold if the betting gets too heavy.

To get over the fear of being outdrawn, you need to really learn and understand the mathematics of poker, and through your study, realize the greater truth that there are not too many situations in which your hand will hold up 100 percent of the time.
If you see yourself in this column, hopefully now you'll be on the road to overcoming your fear. On the other hand, if you believe that you don't suffer from any of these fears, it's worthwhile to look for players who do. When you spot a scared player, it's your duty to exploit his fears and make some money.

Marc "Myst" Karam is a Canadian poker pro who has won millions of dollars competing in major poker tournaments all around the world. Despite his tournament success, he makes his living primarily by playing online cash games on Eurolinx Poker at some of the highest stakes available.