One of the ugly truths about gambling is that short term fluctuations can be a nightmare. If you play poker for any extended period of time, it's pretty much a fact that you're going to experience a long run of bad cards. These downswings can be very damaging, both psychologically and financially.

Because losing runs are inevitable, it's best to be prepared for them. Here are a few important things to keep in mind when facing a few-too-many bad beats.

1. Build a bankroll. Having some form of money management system in action is an important first step to handling long downswings, and probably the one rule that most players ignore. There are quite a few "rules" on how to manage your money, depending on who you ask.

For example, Chris Ferguson recommends using no more than 5% of your bankroll for a single table endeavor (cash game or sit and go), while for a multi-table tournament he recommends committing no more than 2%. To make this clear, this means you can only play in a $10 MTT if you have a bankroll equal to or more than $500.

For Limit Hold 'Em, David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth both recommend having a bankroll of 300 big bets. So, for a $3 - $6 limit game, this means you should have a bankroll of $1800.

Now, honestly: how many players do you know play $3 - 6 with an $1800 bankroll? And yet by not doing so, they're asking for trouble. I may not be a mathematician, but Sklansky and Malmuth are - and they call 300 big bets a "conservative estimate!" They further state that anyone who disbelieves doesn't understand the realities of gambling as well as they should.

Which is the main point here: don't underestimate bad luck. Even if you're a winning player, you must be financially prepared to absorb long periods of loss, lest you be put out of the game. Maybe even more important is the fact that psychologically, losing a bug chunk of change is much more devastating when it comprises 50% of your bankroll as opposed to only being 5% of your stake.

2. Take a break. When you're feeling steamy, it's never a bad idea to let yourself cool down. Being in a bad mood - or having a losing frame of mind - can have subtle and yet powerful effects on your game. It's extremely easy to let a consistent losing streak edge you out of your best mental state, without even realizing you've lost focus.

Taking a break might mean taking a walk around the casino, or signing off from that website for half an hour. Or, it might mean you need a longer relaxation period - maybe a week's vacation, or more, is best for you.

It may not seem like that bad beat - or even that negative event in your personal life, something that may have happened away from the tables. - would affect your poker game, but it those things do matter. Because of the relationship between gambling and addictive behavior, your overall mental equilibrium matters greatly, whether you like it or not. Make sure you have a clear head when playing poker, and unless you're doing it merely for entertainment, don't drink (or get high) before playing.

3. Do some soul searching: Before blaming your losses on the cards that you've been getting dealt, it's a good idea to examine your own game to make sure you're handling those cards correctly. So your aces got cracked again - you might want to ask yourself, "Did I really have to lose that much with them?" Or sometimes, when you win, the question might be: "did I have to win only that much with them?" Because the tiny pot you won was due to your being head-shy, like a beaten dog.

There are lots of ideas that people talk about - any idea that sounds good might catch on, but that doesn't mean it's true. For example, I recently read in a published poker book (whose author shall remain nameless, so as not to be insulting) that if high cards have been coming out a lot (in Hold 'Em), the "law of large numbers" says that low cards should start coming out a lot to even things out; therefore, the author advised the player to play low cards when high cards have been coming out for a while.

This advice is, of course, utterly preposterous - but it can sound good to the uninitiated. Although the law of large numbers does state that in the long run, these things will even out, the long run in this case is so unimaginably long that our feeble attempts to predict and outwit it will always be doomed to failure.

The fact remains that although the odds of flipping five heads in a row is 31 - 1, the odds of flipping the fifth in row will always be 1 - 1 the moment before you flip it. Many people think that flipping four heads in a row would make the fifth improbable by association, but since the coin (and cards) act statistically independent of past performances, this is just not true. There is actually a name for this concept: "gambler's fallacy."

My point with this one is that there are many gambling fallacies. If your results take a consistent turn for the worse, you need to objectively examine some of the truths you play with, and make sure they're solid.

4. Show some class. I know I quote David Sklansky a lot, but I don't think I can say it any better than this: "There is simply no excuse, as either a poker player or a decent human being, for criticizing your opponents." I strongly believe in this statement. You may not be able to control how you feel inside your own head, but you can certainly control how you react on the outside.

And what do you hope to accomplish by behaving rudely? Telling bad players exactly what mistakes they're making is quite counterproductive, even if they're not listening anyway. The truth of the matter is, the more you behave boorishly over the situation, the more the rest of the table forgets about the bad beat itself and starts seeing you as the son-of-a-bitch who won't shut up about it. If you can't let it slide, then it's time to go (see #2.)

Tilt doesn't have to have a noticeable presence in your game; it can be a very subtle force. But it does exist. Make sure that you - and your bankroll - are prepared for it.

Sam @ Power Poker Course.




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