Outrageous Misfortunes

Is there anything that consumes more of a poker player's conversation time than bad beat stories? My phone rang rather late for a weekday last night. It was a close poker buddy of mine who was so steamed from his tournament results that he needed to vent. He'd gone from chip leader with 60 players left to out completely in a few hands worth of time. His Jack-10 hand flopped the top straight, only to see runner-runner 4's give his all-in opponent quads. Soon after, his all-in pre-flop move with pocket Aces elicited two callers. His Aces ended up in 3rd place in the hand when one guy made a flush and another caught trips. With his chip lead now whittled down to a short stack, he pushed his chips in with Ace-Jack. He thought he was in great shape when the lone caller held Ace-8, until an 8 hit the Turn. While it was an indeed unlucky run, it did not surprise me to hear of his misfortune. Check any internet poker forum and you'll see dozens of woeful similar stories. Get a pack of poker veterans together for more than a few minutes and you'll hear bad beat "war stories" where each guy attempts to one-up each other. While I was talking with Phil Hellmuth and John Bonetti recently, John told us the true tale of seeing quad Aces lose to a Royal Flush in the very first hand of a tournament! While there is indeed a certain entertainment quality to bad beat stories, there also is an inherent psychological quality that compels us to tell of our poker disappointments.

Our mind works to continually work out assumptions and projections of the future. There is a natural comfort in the known. Although your regular morning commute and daily job can be arduous and monotonous, it does appeal to your mind as it is unflappably consistent. You know what to expect. You are not worried with the unknown. Imagine if every day you had to report to a new workplace. Every single day would be like the first day on the job. Every morning you'd have to struggle to learn the basics of the job, from where to park to how to gain access to the building. Paperwork, people, the break room, the bosses, and everything associated with the workplace would be completely foreign. The mind would have extreme difficulty under such continual stress. You see, our mind works best with assumptions. We seek patterns. What we assume is based on what we've already witnessed.

This leads us to bad beats. The reason that it personally affects us so negatively is much more than lost money. You see, there is a shock to our personal psychology anytime we have an incorrect assumption. When my poker buddy picked up Aces in the hole, he assumed a win. When he flopped the nut straight, his mind projected a mental image of himself scooping the load of chips. When the hands did not develop as he had assumed that they would, he had to question himself, question his judgment, question his ability and question the validity of poker statistics in general. In this state of mental dissonance, the mind seems to battle itself. This influx causes an uncomfortable cognitive situation, which the mind desperately wants to resolve. Many people look externally for assistance with this. Validation and redirection can come by reassurances from a poker buddy, support on a chat forum, or via other outlets.

Your next bad beat may initially send your mind into a swirl. Stop for a moment to dissect the thinking that goes behind the anger, frustration, and disgust. The "should haves" that dance in your mind are evidence of the assumptions that you once held to be true. Your mind assumed that pocket Aces equaled a win, for instance. You'll need to sort through these automatic reactions to be sure that you can reclaim your thinking and emotions. In the end, the best poker players are still a bit shocked to see their best hands go down in flames via poor luck on the Turn or River. The pros are simply able to rebound more quickly because their poker assumptions are much more guarded. A player like Doyle Brunson, for instance, has seen premium hands fall a countless amount of times. Veterans understand that a poker hand is not complete until the last card is dealt and all of the cards are exposed. There expectations and assumptions have been altered by those experiences. Each bad beat that you take will get you one step closer toward emulating their mindset. Work to accelerate that process by thinking about your thinking, and you will have made a great leap forward in your personal poker psychology.

Note: In addition to being a columnist for many of the top poker magazines in the U.S. and Canada, John is a National Certified Counselor (NCC) in America. He has a Master of Arts degree in Counseling from West Virginia University, and a Bachelor's degree in Psychology with a minor in Sociology from Lock Haven University. You can arrange for interviews, speaking engagements, or find out more about the psychology of poker by emailing carlisle14@hotmail.com.

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