poker and luck????

Question

i play NL texas hold'em. i know what a player holds most of the time, i dont play too many hands. when i do play hands im agressive and i know just how to play them. my only problem is that lately i have had ALOT of bad beats even though i only played strong hands agressivly somehow my apponent had the luck to pull out a miracle. its iether that scenario or i get dealt totaly unplayable hands. i lready took a week off but it still seems bad luck is sticking with me. its driving me nuts. what should i do????

Answer 1

Stop playing.

Seriously if you cannot accept the bad beats, donkey plays and cold decks, poker is not a game you should be playing.

Poker can be an evil game sometimes and nothing will go your way. Even the best players in the world can go broke. You just have to stick to your game plan and think long term. Short term swings are inevitable. Frustrating, but inevitable.

Answer 2

Hi,

Poker can be a brutal game - in the short term. Sure, A-A vs K-K is about 80% to 20%. But, think about it. 4-1 is really not that big of an underdog, considering it is about 37-1 to hit a single number on a roulette wheel. So, although it is a solid favorite, the percentages show that the Aces will lose approximately 2 out of every 10 hands.

A good poker player realizes that on any single hand, luck can be a huge factor. However, in the long run, the game of poker is approximatley 90% skill and 10% luck.

Perhaps you need to mix up your game a bit more. If you are only playing solid starting hands, then it makes it very easy for your opponents to put you on a hand.

Bad beats are part of he game. As someone else had mentioned, if you can not take the short term bad beats, then poker is not the ideal game for you. Try not to take your bad beats to hard, and likewise, don't get too high on your wins. Keep your emotions out of the game, and you will make better decisions.

One piece of advice to remember is that chips change value in a holdem tournament. Each individual chip that you win is worth less than the previous ones. What you gain by winning a chip is not quite as much as what you lose, when you lose a chip. This is a very important fact that many tournament players disregard.

If you feel you are an above average poker player, I would just take the bad beats in stride and move on. Also, it does not make sense to take a week off just because you had a stretch of bad luck. I find that I will not play as good if I am not playing for a while. So, you may have cooled down after a week, but, you may also be a little rusty now that you haven't played for a while.

There are some good startegy articles at this page:
http://www.ultimatepokerforum.com/pokerarticlesandnews.html

Answer 3

Here's the thing with poker, luck will always be a factor in the short term. Over a day or a week (depending on how much you play) you can come out a loser. But a winning player overcomes this variance because in the long term they will win. Since poker is a random game sometimes those 2 outers hit 3 times in a row. Sometimes they don't hit for a week.

If you have trouble keeping your cool during losing sessions you might want to follow a bonus guide or get rakeback from a site like http://www.ultimatepokerbankroll.com if you are clearing a bonus during your losing session you are still making money from the bonus or rakeback so it really helps avoid tilt. You don't feel like you just wasted 2 hours playing because in those two hours when you lost some cash on the tables, you may have cleared half of the 200 dollar bonus.

A week sometimes isn't enough time off. Sometimes it is too much. In your time off you need to make sure you don't think about poker. You need to find your center, and if you think about poker it really hurts. For the first two-three days at least. Then you can maybe read a poker book and see if there is anything you can do to improve.

But sometimes just a day is enough time away, it really depends on the person.

Answer 4

Bad luck can take a long time to pass. I went almost a year of playing every week without cashing out once. If you always play with the same people concentrate on knowing their styles and stinging when the oppurtunity arises. Maybe try playing more hands especially if no one raises, you could start getting the miracle flops. Stick with it, your luck will change. Poker is about half luck and half skill, the only part you can change is the skill.

Answer 5

If you are a solid poker player all your beats should be bad. Occasional suck-out by weak players is what keeps them calling bet after bet chasing bad draws. Everyone has bad streaks the even biggest names in poker like Doyle Brunson have gone broke numerous times. Just keep making good decisions at the poker table and you'll eventually be rewarded.

Answer 6

Keep your day job and avoid gambling money you can't afford to lose.

You are probably a pretty good poker player but well, luck is part of the game too.

My guess, you are an intermediate player; i.e., you know what its in others hands but mabye they know yours as well?

The masters can sometimes play crappy cards. Look at Gus Hansen. That said, he has gone broke playing poker as well as making lots of money playing it.

Answer 7

My brother plays all the time and complains about how much luck plays a part. When I play I could go all in with a queen 3 and beat someone with a queen jack.

Answer 8

poker is a combo of both skill and luck.....sometimes theres nothing you can do......if you only play strong hands....it will become obvious after a point and your opponents will only play poket aces if your in the pot.....although i hate to say it your probably not as good as you think you are .....so just relax and play

Answer 9

take a few weeks off.
read ALL the books. im sure you have.
keep this in mind.
if your WHOLE life is in balance, you can CRUSH that game.
if not, you just wont care enough to win.
if something is bothering you, go do something else.

Answer 10

I've had that it drives you nuts! It will pass though