Losing in Poker: Strategic Flaw or Tilt?
The last thing that a Poker player wants to find himself in is losing streak, and his bank roll in the red. However, everyone will go through this period, and it is important that he knows the cause. They can be either the result of a defect in their strategies or of tilt. There are differences between the two and must be understood.
If you find yourself losing, you need to take a good look at game, and how you are playing so that you will know if the streak is being brought about by a tilt or a deficiency in your Poker strategy.
There are several things that you can analyze in your game. if you are playing online Poker, you should look at the statistics. How many hands do you play? How often do you see the flop? If you play on the Net, your software will make this easy to check out, but even if you play in a land based game, you will still have some idea if you are playing too many hands or paying too much to see the flop.
This often happens when a Poker player is winning though. Even the tight aggressive players, when on a winning streak, tend to get more loose. The reason is that because they are winning often, they start to think that they can play with more hands, and still come away with the pot.
Some other Poker strategy flaws can include resorting to too many bluffs and semi bluffs when playing against marginal opposition. There will be times when will want to try out fancy moves against new players, but this is something that you should avoid at all costs, winning streak or not.
If the problem is related to Poker strategy and tactics, then you can rectify the situation by going back and playing the way that you used to before overconfidence got the better of you. This will not automatically mean that you will be able to snap out of your losing skid, but it will put you on the right track.
On the other hand, if your Poker strategy is still solid, then you should check for signs of tilt.
Poker tilt, of course, is when you are no longer able to function as you normally would due to a number of causes. If you are the type who likes to play in multi tables, then you may already be experiencing fatigue. Have you been relying more on the automated responses than actually thinking about whether you should call or raise that hand?
Other signs of Poker tilt is when you find your mind wandering off when you have folded your hand instead of focusing on the tells of the other players. Of course, in more extreme cases, this can take the form of headaches or eye strain. In a lot of instances, players still go on, hoping to recuperate their losses before calling it a night.
If you think that the result of your losses are due to Poker tilt, then you should take steps to prevent it. Never play unless you are at full strength. In many ways, dealing with tilt is more difficult than with flaws in your strategies, because here you are dealing with physical, emotional and mental aspects, whereas with strategies they are more mechanical and game related.
However, you can, with determination and a strong will, handle these situations as they arise. Take your time, and you will learn, and soon be winning in Poker again.