The Emotional Factor in Poker
A lot of people say it isn't good to be emotional in poker. What do we mean by "emotional"?
Of course, being emotional doesn't mean we cry when we lose a poker game, or we laugh or sing when we win. Emotional is when we get carried away by the tensions and pressures of the poker game that we begin to stray away from being detached from or objective in a game session and begin to covet the pot. When we feel bad about someone else taking the pot away from us, that's when we lose control in poker and do lots of foolish things that add to the opponent's winning chances.
Emotional control has a lot of say in a Hold 'em poker game session. We cannot be too emotionally involved that we covet wining and still do excellently in the game. Detachment and merely waiting for opponents to unwittingly reveal their real situation or planned card combination is the name of the game. Poker involves patience, timing, and lots of analyses. One simply has to let go of any insatiable desire to win poker.
Watch out for the deadly combination. When money risk combines with one's poker "reputation" (if any) and luck, then emotions run high. Most players try their best to get luck to their side and that's when all hell breaks loose. The tendency is to raise the bet. When a bet is raised, so is one's reputation. When all these are going strongly, getting the better of the player, imagine what happens to the emotions at the start of another game session after losing the previous one.
Keeping one's cool is an important skill to learn in poker. No matter the stress or excitement, it's necessary to keep disinterested in wining, focus on the hand, wait patiently while studying the actions of other players. The more other players are emotional, and the more one keeps cool, the better chances of coming out with the best hand of all.
One secret of good poker players who maintain self-control is to expect things are bound to get more stressful and intense as the game session progresses. Anticipate that in the course of the poker game, one is likely to experience being "rivered" or "sucked out" in the game. Too much expectation of a good outcome of a play usually result in the flooding of emotions in the end.
Keeping one's cool and patience are important ingredients in cooking up a proper winning attitude in poker.