The 14 Virtues of a Winning Poker Player: Competitive

What it Means: A competitive poker player does not take losses lightly. This is not to say that they get out of control emotionally, but they simply want to play their best and take pride in their results. Competitive poker players have a deep-seeded need to improve; to always look for an advantage, which will further increase their profits.

The Flip-Side: Players who are not overly competitive tend to hold a carefree attitude to their wins and losses. Without that competitive streak that pushes them to be the best poker player they can be these players are content to just earn whatever it is that they are making.

How it relates to poker: The reason it pays to be a competitive poker has everything to do with squeezing every last nickel of profit out of every single situation. Players who lack the competitive drive tend to be content with their results, even if going the extra mile isn’t too much of a chore: They’re happy to just be winners, while competitors want to be the best they possibly can.

Being competitive is what makes people learn everything they can about the game, it’s what causes them to reflect on decisions they made in a previous session, it’s what causes them to show their opponents antipathy at the tables, and not “take it easy” in certain situations or against certain players.

All of these things are what separates a winning player from a consistent winning player: It’s these small edges that will increase your win-rate and also reduce your variance.

How to cope: If you’re not an overly competitive person there isn’t much you can do to help alleviate the problem: Competitive drive is something people either have or they don’t have. One thing you can do is always bear in mind that the other people at the table are trying to take your money!

All that said, if you find you don’t have that mean streak for poker it just might be that you lack the passion to play the game as anything more than a casual hobby -which is what 99% of people do, so don’t think you are strange, poker just simply isn’t your passion.

How to improve your focus: One of the best ways to improve your competitive drive is to drink up everything you can about the game and then tinker with the strategies-keeping solid records and data– until you can see the difference in results.

Another way to improve your competitive drive is to look at what the true poker success stories have done, and what makes these players so great. You should emulate their success, and push yourself to surpass it. Don’t think it’s unattainable, if you have the drive to try, you’ll likely succeed!