Which Help Should You Get?

My last column said that some players need help against “monsters under the bed” (MUTB). It’s shorthand for the fear that you’re behind when you’re probably ahead. Because fear is essential for survival, evolution has hard-wired it into everyone, but excessive fear is crippling.

Some people need help against the opposite extreme, excessive fearlessness. MUTB will harm your poker results, but being too fearless can destroy your bankroll.

Despite obvious dangers, some players take too many chances. They’re too ignorant to recognize dangers, or they deny reality.

Ignorance

Toddlers clearly illustrate the dangers of ignorance. Until they can walk, they can’t hurt themselves very much. But once they can get around, they have more mobility than sense.

They touch hot stoves, stick wires into electrical outlets, walk into traffic, play with vicious dogs, and so on. Quick, reliable feedback teaches them to avoid dangers. If they touch a hot stove or play with the wrong dog, they get hurt.

Learning about many other dangers takes longer because the feedback is slow and unreliable. People often take risks without being hurt, or the causal relationship is obscured because the pain is delayed. That’s why young people often ignore warnings and take foolish chances. As they age, people slowly learn about more dangers and often become more conservative.

Learning is particularly slow for poker players, because the feedback is extremely slow and unreliable. You can play terrible cards and win a monster pot. You can play above your bankroll and win lots of money. You can buy into a tournament that you can’t afford, beat superior players, and win a fortune.

Young players’ fearlessness can be a huge asset, as I wrote in “Why Do Kids Dominate the World Series of Poker Championship?” (Card Player, Vol. 23/No. 19, 2010). My next column will discuss when to emphasize caution or fearlessness. In this column, I’m concerned only with the downside of being too fearless.

Denial of Reality

Denial is less excusable than ignorance, but may be more common among poker players. Most players know that they shouldn’t do certain things, but do them anyway.

For example, virtually every experienced player knows that playing weak cards is foolish, but countless people frequently play them. In fact, nearly all of us occasionally play cards that we know we should fold. We ignore or deny our reality-based fear because we’re bored or want action, or have some other irrational motive.

You can be too fearless about many subjects, but I’ll discuss only three:

• Your cards
• Your skill
• Your bankroll

After discussing each one, I’ll ask questions to determine whether or not you are too fearless. You can’t answer some questions precisely, but trying to do so will improve your decisions.

Your Cards

Because you make the play-or-fold decision every hand, playing weak cards is probably the most expensive error. You may lose only a few chips here and there, but the long-term costs are enormous.

The biggest short-term losses probably come from overplaying good hands, especially in no-limit and pot-limit. You’ve seen people fearlessly call huge bets with a set when the board has four cards to a straight or flush. They ignore or deny the obvious danger.

Or, they three-bet preflop with pocket jacks, have an overpair to a ragged flop, get into a raising war, and lose their stack to a set or larger pair. Since they’re marked for having an overpair, and their opponent wasn’t afraid, they should recognize that they’re probably beat.

Then, they wonder, “How can I be so unlucky?”

And their opponents wonder, “How can he be so stupid?”

Let’s see whether or not you’re too fearless about your cards:

1. How often do you play cards that you know you should fold?
2. How much does it cost you?
3. How often do you overplay good hands?
4. How much does it cost you?
5. Have you asked yourself, “Why do I keep making these mistakes?”
6. If so, how did you answer?

Your Skills

If you’re not significantly better than a game’s average player, the rake and tokes guarantee losing over the long term. Therefore, rational fear should make you avoid tough games. Many people ignore or deny this reality, and regularly play against clearly superior opponents.

For the moment, let’s ignore deliberately playing against them to develop your skills. Consider only people who don’t know — or even want to know — that they are outclassed. If they couldn’t beat certain people at chess or golf, they would soon recognize the skill differences, but they egotistically assume that only bad luck causes their poker losses.

Let’s see whether or not you’re too fearless about your skills:

1. Do you frequently play in games that you can’t beat?
2. Do you believe that the primary reason for disappointing results is bad luck?
3. Has anyone told you that those games are too tough for you?
4. Have you asked anyone to compare your skills to those of the opponents in those games?
5. If you were told that you’re outclassed, what did you do?
6. How much do you lose in those games?

Your Bankroll

Many authorities have stated the minimum bankroll needed for various stakes, but countless players, especially young ones, ignore them. They essentially believe, “I don’t have to follow rules written by conservative old men who don’t have my skills and nerve.” 

Playing above your bankroll automatically increases your chances of going broke. It also may have an oxymoronic effect: Your apparent fearlessness can actually cause you to play scared poker. You may subconsciously react to the fear of going broke (or just losing too much) by playing too timidly.

When people go broke, they may wish that they’d been more conservative, but do not learn the lesson. They move down to smaller games, build a bankroll, move up too quickly, and go broke again and again.

Let’s see whether or not you’re too fearless about your bankroll:

1. Do you know the minimum bankroll required for your games?
2. Do you frequently play in games above your bankroll?
3. Why do you do it?
4. Have you gone broke?
5. How many times?
6. What did you do differently after going broke?

Final Remarks

Poker players and writers rarely analyze their own fears, guilt, and other emotions. They may even regard doing so as a sign of weakness.

Rejecting self-analysis is another form of denial. Because poker players want to believe that they are rational, they ignore the obvious evidence that their emotions cause mistakes. But denying reality doesn’t change the fact that feelings affect you, me, and everyone else. Denial just guarantees making additional emotional mistakes.

Conversely, the more objectively you analyze your own feelings and their effects, the more control you’ll have. Winning poker demands control, especially of yourself.

If you don’t understand your feelings, you’re helpless about them. So, get help to identify and control the effects of your fears or fearlessness. ♠

Dr. Al (alan[email protected]) coaches only on psychology issues, such as controlling impulses and emotions and coping with losing streaks. He is David Sklansky’s co-author of DUCY? and the sole author of four poker psychology books._