Poker Sit and Go Report: How to Avoid Tossing your Computer

This strategy report could also be called Anger Management for Online Poker Players, but I thought the throwing the computer thing was pretty typical of a tilt session in the privacy of your home or office. Tilting is the result of inadequate anger management, and to help manage your anger in poker, here are some critical elements of your game that you need to master. If you can't grasp the importance of bankroll management, situation analysis, and emotional detachment then you stand little chance of being successful at sit and go tournaments.

Poker Bankroll Management

I have stressed the importance of bankroll management before, but here again when sit and go tournaments is your business, you need to adhere to the 5/10 rule while building your account. This means you can't play at tables with an entry fee larger than 10% of your account - including entry fees - and it is even more prudent when you play closer to 5%. So if your account is at $100 you should be playing $5 sit and go tables, until you build it up to around $150 - $200. I am sure that sounds tight to you, but a loss or an ugly bad beat will be much easier to shake off when your bankroll doesn't take a huge hit because of playing over your head. Think about it. You ARE going to have bad beats, but the mathematical laws of poker protect you from them over time. You just need to allow yourself such protection. So ask yourself this: Are you more likely to stomp on your brand new Dell lap top if:

A - Your set just lost to a gut shot on the river and you were in a $50+5 sit and go tournament and finished OTM 4th leaving your poker account at $73.75, OR

B - Your set just lost to a gut shot on the river and you were in a $5+.50 sit and go tournament and finished OTM 4th leaving your poker account at $123.75?

Can you see how playing within your limits can be liberating in the sense that you adopt the right attitude after a bad beat. "Hey, I played it right, he got very lucky, I was in with the best, my play was a profitable one." On the other hand, if your bankroll suffered a huge hit, your comments may be more along the lines of...." that &%$#@ got so &%?$# lucky, piece of %?$#**&, *&*?*$ %$&?%%", and so on. Then you will be jumping into another sit and go tournament ready to set fire to somebody - yourself most likely! By the way, if this sounds familiar, the truth is we have all been there at one point or another. There is hope.

Situation Analysis

This involves big picture analysis of the table's dynamics and how they relate to a contentious hand you are involved in, that inherently has at least a good chunk of your stack (if not all of it) in harms way. What I am talking about here is that before committing, you should have a relative grasp of all the factors at your table. These factors include, among others - blind structure, stack size, opponent profiles, and envisioning your worst case scenario. Given positive indicators, calling off a lot of your chips may in fact be the right move - and at times even when you figure you are likely behind in the hand. This is because your worst case scenario may not be that bad. This happens often in a "First" or "Third" decision, where third place is still the money, but to draw out would mean a commanding chip lead and a likely first place finish. Here is another typical worst case scenario: You are in a contentious hand with a blockhead and have top pair. So far he has played all of the 12 hands to start the tournament. Losing the hand will leave you with only 850 chips, but with 30/60 blinds. Having surveyed the weak skill level at the table, you feel that this may still be enough for time and opportunity to manage a winning game. However, if you win the hand, you can build a huge chip advantage early. Most times when I am faced with a game critical decision, I consider the worst case scenario after the hand plays out. If I can live with it, and I have a reasonable chance of winning the hand - I usually go for it.

When you are able to think clearly and analyze your worst case scenario after you take into account all the elements of your situation, it gives you a calming acceptance of the outcome, no matter what. This decision making model alleviates tilting to poor play because you had a pre-understanding and arrangement for being in your current predicament.

Emotional Detachment You may know what is at stake and you may have a clear comprehension of odds and outs, but if you cannot detach your emotions from the hand, the game, the money, or the opponent, then your emotions will be making decisions for you.

Let's say you were charging a famous personality to "manage" your actions at the poker table. It doesn't even have to be a poker player. It could be an actor, politician, teacher, or policeman etc. I like to think that I can make decisions like Clint Eastwood would if he were managing my personality. I would be all of this - smart, tough, calm, prudent, patient mixed with selected aggression.... But I would never be emotional at the table, and others would fear me for it.

Your emotions will be one of the toughest aspects of your game to master and overcome. There is no easy way out. We all inject some emotion into our game, such as fear, sadness, anger, shame, resentment, jubilation and so on. If you "hire a manager" to ensure well thought out actions at the table, your emotions will eventually become an aside to the game, allowing you to fully comprehend and enjoy the complexities of the poker.

Anger Management in Poker In closing, the better you are able to manage your anger in poker, the more your game is going to advance. Your skills at the game cannot advance if your emotions are acting as a roadblock. These lessons herein will help you avoid situations where emotions naturally come into play. If you manage to avoid those situations, profitable sessions wait ahead!