Last couple of days - Haven't been running bad, that's for sure.

Cheers.

Last couple of sessions have been pretty good, nothing crazy, but definitely not running bad at all. Just been getting by lately, putting in some volume, and gearing up for a couple of WSOP events I plan on playing this coming week.

Maybe I'll stop being lazy, and write more? Maybe when I start running bad and I have stuff to complain about. There's poker to be played! Cheers, 'til my next post!

Patience, Part 2

We all know that patience is important in all activities that we do and is essential to being a good poker player.

But even though this is common knowledge, why do many players lose their cool, become impatient, and dump multiple buy ins?
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Familiar situations in which people often lose patience in poker include:

Being card dead (being dealt many hands that you deem unplayable).

Losing a hand in which you shove as a favorite to win.

Coolers (Losing with a very strong hand against an even stronger hand).
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What do all these situations have in common? It is not your fault! does it make sense to lose your patience along with more of your money?

Remind yourself that although poker is a skill game, there are still elements of luck involved (randomly dealt cards, and randomly dealt community cards). Suck it up, continue to play your best (A) game and don't become a money leak.
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Post contributed by: Everyday Psychology
PHOTO CREDIT: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dupo-x-y/

Patience - Especially crucial in poker

Patience and running good gets you this.

Patience, defined as(according to Wikipedia) "the state of endurance under difficult circumstances, which can mean persevering in the face of delay or provocation without acting on annoyance/anger in a negative way". There are people whom we all know who have very little patience for anything, and will blow up on anyone, and everything, at a whim. There are also those people whom we know who seem to have such a high patience threshold, that nothing what-so-ever seems to faze them in the slightest. In poker, you can have all the technical skill and know the statistics inside-out, but without patience, you might as well be giving money away to everyone else at the table. Poker is a game of skill, but with elements of luck involved(hence why it is associated with gambling), in the long run the better players will win, and the worse players will lose, this is a simple fact, but a huge factor in determining a 'better' or 'worse' player is definitely their patience threshold.

You'll make the right decision, right?

Hours upon hours of play, being card-dead, and getting bad-beats bestowed upon you will gnaw at you to the point where you lose your patience for the game, and seem to abandon a winning game plan for a style more akin to reckless gambling. This is where the better, more patient player will shine. No matter what the circumstance, no matter what the outcome, they are able to play on with a level head, and always make the right decisions.

Life is like poker, in that aspect, you have to have patience for a lot of things that come your way. Not everything will work out the way you plan, and no matter how sure the outcome seems, something might just get in the way of that; will you have the patience to deal with it then? Or will you lose control and let your emotions take over?