Your best poker online means never saying "Oh, fuck it" and calling

Is it important to play your best poker online? A Church of Texas Holdem psalm should illustrate the point:

Church of Texas Holdem Psalm #5:
Always play thy best poker online, for many good works may be undone by one “Oh, fuck it” moment.

I’m sure you’ve experienced the exact same emotion. You know – with almost 100% certainty – that your opponent has you beaten.

In fact, not only do you know you’re behind, but you also suspect that you’re drawing very slim or dead.

And yet, you call. Sure enough, you had two outs to your smaller overpair and you lose a big pot. You don’t need me to tell you that this is not your best poker.

Even the best online poker rooms are full of hopeful losers who regularly make this kind of play. You are a disciple of the Church of Texas Holdem precisely because you wish to avoid this kind of behaviour.

In fact, by ruthlessly hunting down the crappy players and working out the kinks in your game, you can make your best poker online pay your mortgage for you. (I’m currently working on an eBook resource demonstrating the steps you can take to turn your part-time, profitable hobby into a full-time poker profession. Watch the home page for details.)

So, with the long-term goal of a life less ordinary – that of the best poker online professional you can become – you must eliminate the “Oh, fuck it” moments from your game.

How costly are these bad calls? I’d go as far as to say they wipe out the good work done in as many as three winning hands.

Assessing what a win, or a loss, means to you is part of understanding your best poker. Online games have a tendency to affect your mood. Losing a big pot will not only undermine your bottom line profits. It will make you curse your bad judgment, possibly upsetting you into making further bad decisions in future hands.

Think of it like this. Imagine a situation where you’re dealt JJ. You raise and get reraised by a tight, aggressive player who you note as a regular winner. Here’s the important part. In your head, you have now assessed that you are probably behind, and hoping to catch a Jack.

The flop is one of those losing player ‘dream’ flops, which invariably ends in the nightmare of a rebuy:

You have an overpair, which puts you ahead of many hands which your tight-aggressive opponent could have raised with. So I don’t think a bet here is a terrible move. Check-folding is way too tight.

Two-thirds of the pot should be enough. If he would fold for the entire pot, he would fold for two-thirds (here you have saved yourself a significant amount of money if he raises). Oops! He comes over the top and raises double the pot.

Look out! This is the “Oh fuck it” moment. You are seconds away from costing yourself a rebuy, possibly turning a winning day into a losing one.

Surely every sinew of your being tells you that you’re losing? Calling here ‘just in case’ is a massive error, one that rookies make all the time. You should be above that kind of behaviour by now. Grit your teeth and fold.

Now do yourself a favour. Stop cursing the poker gods for dealing two big pairs in one hand. Instead, make a note of the money you have left in front of you. And now, the fun part:

Imagine that you have just won a pot of the amount in front of you.

See what’s happened? The glass is no longer half-empty, it’s half-full. That’s money you didn’t lose, which is the same as money you have won. Congratulate yourself. You have folded a hand that 75% of the best poker online players would have called with.

Sometimes not losing is the same as winning. Ask any golfer if he’s ever hit a bogie that felt like a birdie – it’s exactly the same principle.

Here endeth the lesson.

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