The 14 Virtues of a Winning Poker Player: A Positive Outlook

What It Means: Having a positive outlook means that you go into a session of poker expecting to win: Not because you are felling lucky, or think tonight’s your night, but because you feel you are a solid player and are going to be on your A-Game.

I’m not talking about the power of positive thinking here; I’m talking about knowing you’re a good player and not letting pessimistic thoughts get in the way of what you know to be right.

The Flip-Side: When you go into a poker game expecting to lose, or lacking confidence, you have already set the wheels in motion for a losing session. Again, I’m not implying that negative thoughts lead to negative results, but negative thoughts do cause you to play a bit differently than you normally do, whether out of fear, self-doubt, or anger.

How It Relates to Poker: A positive outlook is important from the moment you enter a card-room, or log into your favorite Online Poker site, to when you leave the game, and even into your post-game analysis.

Walking into a card-room thinking bad thoughts will cause you to downplay the importance of things like game selection. After all, if you “know” you’re going to lose what does it matter if you lose to good players or to a lucky donkey?

Having a positive outlook is even more critical while you’re playing: It can help you avoid tilt by thinking a big win for you is right around the corner: You’re body language and posture will exude a “respect my skills” quality: and you’re more likely to make the proper decision in marginal situations with big pots, because the self-doubt/fear of making a mistake won’t be there.

Having a positive outlook will also help you cope after a bad session. It’s a lot easier to lead a happy, healthy, life away from the poker tables if you realize that even the best players have losing sessions and make mistakes, but in the end they win money: Otherwise you’ll be kicking yourself for hours, or days, about a big downswing -which will only add to your pessimistic outlook!

How To Cope: When pessimism starts popping into your head you need to remind yourself that you are going to suffer bad-beats, you are going to make mistakes, and you are going to run into a cooler from time-to-time: If you dwell on these issues you will fall off your ‘A-Game’; and once you do that, you have lost your edge. And winning in poker is all about having a slight edge over your opponents.

Ways to Improve Your Outlook: The biggest thing is to remember is not to take it personally: The cards are inanimate objects, and in the long-run every player will receive the same amount of luck -both good and bad.

Additionally, you have to keep in mind that poker’s long-term survival relies on bad players thinking they have a chance to win, which is why poker gives solid players only a small advantage: An advantage so miniscule that the average Joe can’t even see it. This is what makes these players put their money on the table - Money you will eventually have, whether it takes an hour, a week, or a year.