Discipline required

Another poor performance last week has seen the bankroll drop to below $10,000. On the positive side, it was only a couple of months ago that I was reporting a new record bankroll high of $12,000 so its hardly a disaster. On top of this, consider too that in the last 10 days I have withdrawn over $13,000.

Here’s my problem: after a few months winning big dollars any small wins feel like a loss. Any losses feel like the end of the world.

At times like this is I bring to mind an interview I saw with top UK cash games player Ben Roberts. For those of you who haven’t seen this guy, he comes across as the most level-headed person you could meet. His (paraphrased) philosophy is this: “In poker you have wins and you have losses and at the end of the year you add them all up and that is how you have done. You must accept that there will be losses.”

I’ve read other comments, one from London player Jeff Duval that the difference between the winners and losers at the top level is how much they lose when they are playing badly. The biggest winners manage to keep things together much better when things go against them. Some would-be winners can become break-even or losing players by losing more than they should during bad times.

Until his death earlier this month, Chip Reese, considered by those in the know to be the best poker player of all time, was noted as “smooth” player. By all accounts he never did anything that most good poker players couldn’t have done. The difference was he did the right thing almost all of the time. He played somewhere close to his best game all of the time. He was possibly alone in being able to do this and that’s why he was considered the world’s best player.

Most readers will realise that I have not been doing this over the last few weeks. Any poker players reading will probably realise that its a problem they have too. If we were totally rational human beings we would be much better poker players. Luckily most people are incapable of behaving totally rationally at all times. If they did there would be a hell of a lot less money up for grabs at the poker table.

Discipline is the key principle here. Its not enough to know the right thing to do: we must then do it. It takes discipline to do this and when things don’t go my way I become more of a gambler and less of a disciplined poker player. This is not something I am proud of but its something I can seek to put right. Starting right away!