Poker and Emotions – Newsletter

Poker & Emotions

Poker and Emotions: To be clear and upfront, emotions, even in poker, are not necessarily a bad thing. Emotions are a form of caring. When someone we love passes away, we are sad. We could say the same for poker. We feel some anxiety (emotions) when we don’t play well, or we become angry when we get sucked out on. And all of that is okay.

The objective in poker isn’t to be void of emotion., nor would that even be a good thing if you could be. The goal is to balance our emotions, and regardless of what we may be experiencing on an emotional level, we continue to think logically.

Author of Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Coleman, says that EI (Emotional Intelligence) is more important than IQ. He states that having a high IQ accounts for about 20% of our success. That makes you want to ask, what’s the other 80%? While it’s a combination of skills, an enormous piece of it is due to having a high EI. Having a high EI, contributes far more than 20% of your success factor, more than double that.

How Do Our Emotions Impact Our Poker Decisions?

• Memory: As I said earlier, we don’t want to be void of emotion, even at poker. Our emotions have control over our memory. Not being able to recall all of your poker skills while in a game would be a very bad thing. Our brain doesn’t only record factual data, but it relies heavily on thoughts and feelings to guide us. If you could not remember how a particular hand played out the last time you were up against Peggy Sue, in a similar situation and how you felt about it, then it would make playing good poker impossible.

• Clear/Logical Thinking: Being overly emotional can distort our thinking, resulting in our making poor decisions. In poker, that cost us our chips. In life, the cost could be much more serious. Daniel Coleman says: “In a very real sense, we have two minds – one that thinks and one that feels”. He went on to say, “Life is a comedy for those that think and a tragedy for those that feel”. In poker, this should be the Golden Rule.
• Sensitivity: I don’t think I have ever seen this discussed in any poker book or training video. But Sensitivity can increase your win rate. If you can identify with how your opponent feels, you can make better decisions. It will become easier to pick up on his non-verbal signals, such as body language and facial expressions.

Daniel Coleman Quote

“The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice. And because we fail to notice that we fail to notice, there is little we can do to change until we notice how failing to notice shapes our thoughts and deeds.” I think he’s right.

I hope you find the information regarding poker and emotions useful. Realizing it’s a very brief description of how emotions can affect our poker game, we will be placing additional information on this subject on Pokerrailbird.com.

Rick’s Turn To Act

A Poker Player Who Could Not Control His Emotions

I was in an Uber recently and I told the driver I was going to play some poker. He got excited and said,

“I love poker! I don’t play anymore because the most important thing in poker is to control your emotions and I just can’t do that”.

We continued talking and I could tell that he was a talented and dangerous player. I could also see why he no longer played.

Talented and Dangerous Players

They know the basic math and, as such; they realize that most of the time their opponents have a marginal holding like top pair. This is especially true when there are only two players (heads up). Each uses this knowledge and puts significant pressure on players by making large bets and raising.

Talented players understand and leverage their position. They avoid being in big pots when they are first to act. Therefore, their opponent(s) must check or bet first, giving them an information advantage.

They play the same way in almost every situation. Whether they have a hand that cannot be beaten (the nuts) or nothing, they will usually make the same large bet. This makes them unpredictable and dangerous.

Why would a talented player decide not to play then?

He could not handle short-term bad luck. Even the best cash game players have dreadful nights. All players get in hands with lots of money at stake and lose when the odds are heavily in their favor. If you cannot control your emotional response to this bad luck, you play badly and take risks that you would not have taken if you had not lost. This results in losing even more money.

Winning players continue to play well or quit for the night. He couldn’t do either.

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Comments, suggestions and questions are always welcome. You can email me directly at: terrywood@pokerrailbird.com