Dealing With Losing

A young guy — maybe a college student, maybe a day laborer between jobs, maybe someone with just a few too many hours on his hands — decides to take up poker. This new player goes on a major rush to start his career, moving up limit after limit until he’s won so much money that he begins to think he can make a living at this game. He studies and realizes that he was extremely lucky to run as well as he did, but also that he has a talent for poker that he never knew he had. He proceeds to grind out his living. Sure, he goes through downswings, but he plays so many hands on so many tables at once that he never has so much as a losing month, let alone a losing year. Every day, he tries to remind himself how lucky he is to have such a smooth path to riches.

I’ve heard several variations of this story over the years. It’s a good story, and an inspiring one. Unfortunately, it is also wildly unrealistic. Most players, even extremely talented ones, go broke many times over before they finally get it right ­— and some never get it right. And if you’re not blessed with incredible innate ability, the amount of work that it takes to become a great player can stop almost anyone from ever achieving that goal.

There are many obstacles that can derail a poker career. In this column, however, I want to focus on just one: the losing streak. Unless you’re the brave young hero from the story above, you will experience a prolonged losing streak at some point before you’ve become established as a poker player, and before you’re confident in your prospects of achieving long-term success.

Losing streaks are a problem for even veteran pros, but pros can at least look at their overall results — their body of work — and feel OK about their decision to pursue poker as a profession. For newer players, losing can destroy a career before it even starts.

Nothing convinces a player to quit poker like a loss of confidence following a losing streak. If he keeps playing and losing, he’ll be labeled a degenerate. If he keeps playing and starts winning, he will still continue to doubt himself until he’s recovered all of his losses. When you’re stuck a whole lot, that task seems especially daunting. It’s easy for a player to think to himself, “I might as well quit.” Thus, the worst part of a losing streak is its psychological impact, not the short-term financial setback. If you’re a winning player, a losing streak won’t matter at all in the grand scheme of things, as the long run will wipe it out. But if your confidence is shattered and you quit, the losing streak’s psychological damage costs you an entire career’s worth of income.

It needs to be said that if you’re losing so much that you’re at risk of going broke, or you know that you’re playing above your bankroll, or you’re constantly going on tilt, the only solid piece of advice is to stop playing. Competing in poker at a high level requires focus and discipline. If you’ve lost those things, you need to get them back before you start playing again. This column, however, is aimed at the player who is still focused and still disciplined, but just can’t seem to win.

Here are a few tips for dealing with the inevitable losing streaks that come with playing poker as a serious hobby:

1. Spend some time thinking about strategy instead of results. Your recent results aren’t going to change no matter how long you look at them. You won’t feel better about how badly you’ve been running by staring at the red numbers on your spreadsheet for hours and hours. Instead, think about some strategic aspects of the game. Any strategic aspect will do. If you enjoy coming up with opening ranges from various positions, think about that. If you like to consider the best spots to bluff-raise on the river, work out some plays for those scenarios. It doesn’t really matter if you end up changing the way that you play; thinking about how to succeed in poker instead of how badly you’ve been running will get you refocused and eager to play again.

2. Think about why you like playing poker. Almost no one who makes a living at this game started out thinking he could make a living at it. No, we all got into poker because we thought it would be really fun. You may not like playing poker anymore, but if you remember why you liked playing in the first place, it can really improve your mindset.

3. Find humor in it. Laugh at how badly you’re running. If you can’t laugh at yourself, poker is going to be a long career. The best player I know is constantly telling stories about hands he’s botched, or wild misreads he’s made. Let me say it again: He’s the best player I know, and I know a lot of players. When you stop and think about it, a losing streak is funny. You say that you lost 3,000 big blinds in a week of playing no-limit hold’em? Hah! How could anyone possibly have that bad a run?

4. Switch it up. It can be a huge psychological benefit to try something new, in poker and in life. Luckily, there are always a million new things to try in poker. If you’ve been playing a lot of cash games, give tournaments a shot. If you’re sick of hold’em, try pot-limit Omaha, deuce-to-seven triple-draw lowball, or even razz. (Actually, if you’re frustrated with poker, don’t try razz. You would likely end up a danger to yourself and others.) Learning a new game is a great way to re-engage with poker intellectually. The only problem is that you might not be good at it right away, and your losing may continue. I’d suggest starting out at the lower limits, to absorb some potential growing pains.

I hope that your next losing streak is a long, long time from now. But if and when that losing streak occurs, I hope that you remember some of the tips from this column and can work your way back to profitability quickly, laughing all the way.

Matt Matros is the author of The Making of a Poker Player, which is available online at www.CardPlayer.com. He is also a featured coach for stoxpoker.com.