Attitude

So why does your attitude in poker matter? You play, for fun/semi-serious, and that's it. Whenever, however much. Right?

Wrong!

The fact of the matter is this is a terrible attitude for poker and a good way to go broke. Now don't get me wrong-if you just want play to have fun, than you go ahead and do that. But if you want to be a winning player, you must have the correct attitude going into it.

Good poker players are able to win in the long run, or so the saying goes. What does this mean though? Okay, good question. There's several pieces to the puzzle, let's explore them.

Be all you can be

I know this is kind of a dorky quote, but it's very true. You should always play your "A game", give yourself the best chance to win. I know this may seem self-evident, but a lot of the time people tend to get wrapped up in the results. They are important of course, but they will come if you always play your best game, which goes into my next point.

Know your limits

By playing within certain limits, you are reducing the variance and essentially safeguarding your bankroll. The general rule of thumb is 20 buy-ins for SNGs is good, and 35 is very well protected. For cash games, I think it's 10 full buy-ins for NLHE and 1000 bets for LHE. I'm not sure on this, so check it out for yourself (google for "poker bankroll management"). Also, you have to be willing to move down limits if you go on a bad run and become under-bankrolled. This is hard for most players. But winning at poker is a grind (at least for most people, unless you win the WSOP, then you're set for life :-) ). Good bankroll management leads to success, although sometimes it takes a while (as you know, Rome wasn't built in a day).

Be smart

You know what games you're good at. So play to your strengths. If you're a sick Stud Hi-Lo player, then play Stud Hi-Lo. If you're a fabulous STT player, then play STTs. If you are not good at a certain game, don't mess with it. If you want to venture into a new game, be willing to lose the money you play with, it's not easy to just start playing a new game and immediately start winning. Read up on the uncharted before diving head first into it.

Don't get your emotions involved

We've all been on tilt. Everyone does, it's just a part of the game. The central issue with tilt is that you start to play with anger, and you make your decisions based on emotions. Instead of emotions, you need to make your decisions on the facts you have, and any observations you have. I think everyone would agree that there are certain frames of mind a person can be in in which s/he should never play poker. If you are tilting, recognize it and just quit. Go for a walk, punch a punching bag, whatever. The point is that you are not in a condition in which you can play your best game, so don't.

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