Re: My name is Indiana and I am a poker addict
Indiana,
since you seem to be a proven winning player, and an intelligent person, I'm sure you understand the fundamentals behind this game. You know that you can't win every time you sit down at the table. I much like you, rather despise losing. I however, derive most of my poker income from MTT's, so I've had to accept, embrace and truly understand what variance means. I probably lose more days than I win, but given the nature of MTT's, that's common. So what do I do? I play as well as I can, win or lose, and when I leave the tables behind for the day, I leave feeling satisfied I tried my hardest. I know that the days I win will make up for the losses many times over.
For a cash game player, you obviously can't afford to have more losing days than winning days, but the same principle applies. If you play your toughest, you ought to leave the tables feeling good about yourself. I guess my advice is, not to embrace losing, but understand that is a inevitable part of poker.
Here's a great quote from long-time poster MLG. I bolded the (imo) important part.
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I think a lot of players become too invested in poker. That is, they have too much of an emotional investment in outcomes. Realistically it happens to all of us, but it’s important to keep in mind why you play poker. If you are playing because it’s fun and you enjoy the challenge then the emphasis should be on making correct decisions. I honestly enjoy getting involved in a difficult hand that I have to think about, even if I make a mistake (or make the right decision and lose the pot anyway). It is easy though to slip and think that because you perceive yourself as “good” or “better” you deserve to win. That’s just not the case. There is no deserve in poker. That’s a pretty important concept, and if you can’t swallow it poker will kill you. That’s what I mean by being too invested, feeling like you deserve to win because you play well. You don’t. When you take up poker seriously part of the bargain is throwing the word deserve right out the window.
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