How to Stay Focused When Your Poker Results Aren’t What You Expected

Poker is a game where there is risk associated with every reward. It’s not a game to be avoided, but instead one that should be played intelligently and with the goal of winning a reasonable amount of money. The key is to keep focused on improving your poker skills while not getting discouraged when your results aren’t what you were hoping for.

In poker, each player places chips into the pot (called betting) to indicate their intention to hold or fold a hand. Players can also make additional bets in order to increase the size of the pot. There are four rounds of betting: pre-flop, flop, turn and river. Each round of betting is started by the player to the left of the dealer and action continues clockwise.

There are a lot of great resources for learning the fundamental winning poker strategy. However, staying the course when that strategy doesn’t yield the results you’re looking for is a whole different challenge. It’s important to remember why you were drawn to the game in the first place. For many people, it was not just the potential for large winnings, but rather the social aspect of the game and/or the intellectual challenge. Whatever the reason, it’s crucial to be able to separate the uncertainty of life from the game of poker and understand that it is not possible to eliminate all risk, but rather to minimize the risks. This requires a proper understanding of ranges and knowing when to release hands that appear beaten.