Hating The Game

Let’s face it. You play too much Poker. You login when you’re tired, unshowered, unexercised or hungry. You play when you’re ill, hungover, depressed and when you don’t really have the time. As a result, you play rushed, desperate and uninspired Poker, and lose many pots unnecessarily in the process. This frustrates you deeply and convinces you that you’re just not the player you thought you were. You decide that you deserve to lose your entire bankroll. So you know what? You’ve moved up a few limits. And you're here to either get your money back quickly or prove to yourself what you’ve known all along, that you just don’t belong here anyway.


Sound familiar? This state of mind is absolutely lethal to your Poker career and will end it quicker than anything else. You must be aware of this at all times and be ready to log out, and if necessary self exclude until you’ve recovered. You must take time off, and give yourself the mental space needed to get back to your A-Game. The truth is. You don’t hate Poker, and you don’t hate yourself. You also don't believe that deserve to lose. You've just played too many hands during the past week, month or year. Poker is an extremely complicated game. It requires a high level of brain power and deep analysis. This makes it a tiring activity. Therefore you must ration your playing time and closely monitor yourself to make sure you're not tilting from exhaustion.


Personally, I take breaks of at least 30 minutes for every 2 hours of play, regardless of whether I am winning or losing during my sessions. I use the ‘Sit Out Next Big Blind and Close’ button. This ensures that my tables automatically deactivate after I’ve made a firm decision to begin my scheduled break. My poker career was nearly destroyed by my lack of personal regard and bankroll management. No matter how much you’re crushing your current limit, if you are not in control of your ‘in-game’ physical and mental health, then you could completely cancel out your winrate and become a losing player very quickly. This is very sad, as it has nothing to do with your Poker skill, only your ability to manage yourself personally.


Plan your bankroll, table limits and game duration. Never move up to recoup losses. If anything, when you’re not feeling at your best, you should be moving down. This will allow you to regain your confidence and exercise damage control while protecting your bankroll and career. Rest, reflect and take regular time off.


Good luck on your journey. Comment below to share your story with the community.

Ragequit said:

Let’s face it. You play too much Poker. You login when you’re tired, unshowered, unexercised or hungry. You play when you’re ill, hungover, depressed and when you don’t really have the time. As a result, you play rushed, desperate and uninspired Poker, and lose many pots unnecessarily in the process. This frustrates you deeply and convinces you that you’re just not the player you thought you were. You decide that you deserve to lose your entire bankroll. So you know what? You’ve moved up a few limits. And you're here to either get your money back quickly or prove to yourself what you’ve known all along, that you just don’t belong here anyway.


Sound familiar? This state of mind is absolutely lethal to your Poker career and will end it quicker than anything else. You must be aware of this at all times and be ready to log out, and if necessary self exclude until you’ve recovered. You must take time off, and give yourself the mental space needed to get back to your A-Game. The truth is. You don’t hate Poker, and you don’t hate yourself. You also don't believe that deserve to lose. You've just played too many hands during the past week, month or year. Poker is an extremely complicated game. It requires a high level of brain power and deep analysis. This makes it a tiring activity. Therefore you must ration your playing time and closely monitor yourself to make sure you're not tilting from exhaustion.


Personally, I take breaks of at least 30 minutes for every 2 hours of play, regardless of whether I am winning or losing during my sessions. I use the ‘Sit Out Next Big Blind and Close’ button. This ensures that my tables automatically deactivate after I’ve made a firm decision to begin my scheduled break. My poker career was nearly destroyed by my lack of personal regard and bankroll management. No matter how much you’re crushing your current limit, if you are not in control of your ‘in-game’ physical and mental health, then you could completely cancel out your winrate and become a losing player very quickly. This is very sad, as it has nothing to do with your Poker skill, only your ability to manage yourself personally.


Plan your bankroll, table limits and game duration. Never move up to recoup losses. If anything, when you’re not feeling at your best, you should be moving down. This will allow you to regain your confidence and exercise damage control while protecting your bankroll and career. Rest, reflect and take regular time off.


Good luck on your journey. Comment below to share your story with the community.

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Very interesting to note that you decided to work with the intellectual and psychological side of a poker player, this game is really complex and covers two important aspects: technique and psychology. The two are complete and without one of them, the player will not be consistent, so, as you mentioned, whenever you can improve both and run for the victory!

Fortunately, since childhood I play chess. This is my favorite game of all, because in it 100% success depends on you. Chess trains concentration well and if you know that you lose in 40-70 minute games due to stupid mistakes, then this will happen again in poker. To be honest, I don’t think that players who are fond of poker, but do not play chess, will be able to succeed, will make mathematically competent decisions and reason as logically as possible.

Ordinary warriors first take the field and then win the battle, and the best warriors first win the battle and then take the field.

no matter what the probability theory and mathematics of games say, people always play poker(of course, if it is not a fraudulent poker room where bots play), so the mental state plays a very big role in poker. I think if a player is not prepared psychologically for everything that awaits him at the poker tables, it is better not to start playing this game Professionally.

Ragequit said:

Let’s face it. You play too much Poker. You login when you’re tired, unshowered, unexercised or hungry. You play when you’re ill, hungover, depressed and when you don’t really have the time. As a result, you play rushed, desperate and uninspired Poker, and lose many pots unnecessarily in the process. This frustrates you deeply and convinces you that you’re just not the player you thought you were. You decide that you deserve to lose your entire bankroll. So you know what? You’ve moved up a few limits. And you're here to either get your money back quickly or prove to yourself what you’ve known all along, that you just don’t belong here anyway.


Sound familiar? This state of mind is absolutely lethal to your Poker career and will end it quicker than anything else. You must be aware of this at all times and be ready to log out, and if necessary self exclude until you’ve recovered. You must take time off, and give yourself the mental space needed to get back to your A-Game. The truth is. You don’t hate Poker, and you don’t hate yourself. You also don't believe that deserve to lose. You've just played too many hands during the past week, month or year. Poker is an extremely complicated game. It requires a high level of brain power and deep analysis. This makes it a tiring activity. Therefore you must ration your playing time and closely monitor yourself to make sure you're not tilting from exhaustion.

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Great post! I can totally relate to this and I know a lot of players can too.
It's only as I get older and learn to live a more balanced life that I avoid these pitfalls.

Here's a video I made on the topic as well that helps people ensure they're playing for 'the right reasons'. And if they're playing just to gamble... for entertainment... well as long as it's within their budget and they aren't surprised if they lose, then that's totally fine too!

Ragequit said:

... So you know what? You’ve moved up a few limits. And you're here to either get your money back quickly or ...

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I do that all the time when I'm on a downswing - almost always allows me to refill my bankroll.

In my opinion, you described a large number of players in your post. They will see themselves in the mirror after reading. Perhaps these mistakes of people lead them to despair. Few people can change this, even if they realize it.

Vallet said:

In my opinion, you described a large number of players in your post. They will see themselves in the mirror after reading. Perhaps these mistakes of people lead them to despair. Few people can change this, even if they realize it.

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In fact, all players have sailed in absolutely any game, whether it’s slots or poker or roulette, it’s an unhealthy excitement if you learn to restrain it, you can safely enjoy the game and remain in a small plus

this has happened to me and from time to time it happens more whenever I go to grind I meditate before and I don't play for 3 days which and to enter well focused and be able to reason and try to take some profits, I saw that I was already in an addiction phase I only thought about playing denpoker 24 hours, I even dream about the game and then I started watching a video from Pessagno that says that to be a good player you just need to focus on the goal and you have to have a light mind and good energy to sit in front of the computer and having a good session that doesn’t help you force the game and wear out seeing that if you don’t try another day you don’t need to think that the world will end that you have to win hard because that just takes you to square one.

TerrySimons12 said:

In fact, all players have sailed in absolutely any game, whether it’s slots or poker or roulette, it’s an unhealthy excitement if you learn to restrain it, you can safely enjoy the game and remain in a small plus

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Excitement is not so easy to stop. Professional players who have coped with the excitement again fall into its trap sooner or later.

Poker gives me and edge in various spheres of social life, you learn to understand people just looking at 'em. That's one of things why i will never give up poker probably.

Recently, I started playing for results. That is, I choose specific games in which I have a skill and those games that I enjoy, unfortunately I understand that my games are very small, and the application of such a factor as bankroll management math is about zero, such are the current realities. So what I do, I choose a specific serial tournament with an expensive buy-in, go through the satellite grid, and play a small field and a sweet prize pool. It may be wrong, but at least I know what the fight is for.

Great text, I found myself in some points of it. The mental in this game is very important and very neglected.

Ragequit said:

Let’s face it. You play too much Poker. You login when you’re tired, unshowered, unexercised or hungry. You play when you’re ill, hungover, depressed and when you don’t really have the time. As a result, you play rushed, desperate and uninspired Poker, and lose many pots unnecessarily in the process. This frustrates you deeply and convinces you that you’re just not the player you thought you were. You decide that you deserve to lose your entire bankroll. So you know what? You’ve moved up a few limits. And you're here to either get your money back quickly or prove to yourself what you’ve known all along, that you just don’t belong here anyway.


Sound familiar? This state of mind is absolutely lethal to your Poker career and will end it quicker than anything else. You must be aware of this at all times and be ready to log out, and if necessary self exclude until you’ve recovered. You must take time off, and give yourself the mental space needed to get back to your A-Game. The truth is. You don’t hate Poker, and you don’t hate yourself. You also don't believe that deserve to lose. You've just played too many hands during the past week, month or year. Poker is an extremely complicated game. It requires a high level of brain power and deep analysis. This makes it a tiring activity. Therefore you must ration your playing time and closely monitor yourself to make sure you're not tilting from exhaustion.


Personally, I take breaks of at least 30 minutes for every 2 hours of play, regardless of whether I am winning or losing during my sessions. I use the ‘Sit Out Next Big Blind and Close’ button. This ensures that my tables automatically deactivate after I’ve made a firm decision to begin my scheduled break. My poker career was nearly destroyed by my lack of personal regard and bankroll management. No matter how much you’re crushing your current limit, if you are not in control of your ‘in-game’ physical and mental health, then you could completely cancel out your winrate and become a losing player very quickly. This is very sad, as it has nothing to do with your Poker skill, only your ability to manage yourself personally.


Plan your bankroll, table limits and game duration. Never move up to recoup losses. If anything, when you’re not feeling at your best, you should be moving down. This will allow you to regain your confidence and exercise damage control while protecting your bankroll and career. Rest, reflect and take regular time off.


Good luck on your journey. Comment below to share your story with the community.

Click to expand...

Good Morning. I liked your post and your statement, it really is what happens when a poker player lets a lot of negative feelings accumulate, ends up losing, increasing the limits, breaking and dirtying the name of the sport. It is necessary to have emotional and technical control to be able to play a clean and relaxing game.