Patience
 

Poker can be a very frustrating game at times. Having the best hand pre-flop doesn't mean that you will win the pot. When you put alot of chips in a pot when you believe you have the cream of the crop hand can cost you in the long run and even cause you to lose the big tourney.

The same goes for hand to hand play. When that lucky chaser catches his cards and causes you to lose that hand. But remind yourself when that happens that the lucky catches are what brings that chaser back to the table. And in the long run the chips will come back to you if you play a solid patient game.

Poker never has any guarantees, you can only make good descions and hope for the best. That means, among other things, practicing patience by awaiting good starting hands before entering pots.

But even 'pocket rockets,' the heart stopping A-A that's the highest possible starting hand in hold'em, loses a substantial number of pots - especially against several opponents who are all chasing draws or hoping to hit a second paid or three of a kind on the last betting rounds. One of them is bound to hit something and snatch away what you already thought of as "your pot." Let there be no mistake about it - it really hurts when that happens.

The same is even more true for "pocket cowboys," or K-K. A casual browse through any online poker forum yields numerous posts from players recounting how their kings were beaten so many times in a row that they hated to see "those ace magnets" appear once again in their hands.


The truth? K-K makes considerable money over time, but when you're running badly, "bad beats" causing them to lose can seem to happen a lot. If an ace doesn't flop to give someone playing A-small the only higher pair than yours, it seems that the turn or river all too often rewards terrible players who "chase with an ace," in the hope of catching one of the three remaining aces in the deck.


Mathematically, it's terrible play to chase that "three-outer" but you'll see it time and time again, especially in online poker. There will be times that none of your excellent hands hold up against the chasers. Again, it's all part of poker.


But the real problem comes if you react emotionally to such beats and let them pull you off your best game. After you've lost a good number of chips with premium hands to opponents who had mangy dogs all the way, only to catch "miracle cards" on the end, it's easy to lose your patience completely and throw discipline completely to the winds. DON'T!


For players lacking patience won't win consistently. Lowering your starting hand standards for lack of patience is liability you can't overcome, no matter how much you've studied. Without patience, knowledge can't bring success. Knowledge is important, but patience is crucial. Without it, you'll never be a winning player.

interesting, but that true without patience you dont win,you can win once, but notlong time

I totally agree. Patience is key in poker.

Ah, patience is tested alot over a poker players lifespan. Its easy when starting out to tilt so you should set rules to stop yourself from tilting. You dont want to waste your chips over nothing. You learn a lot about discipline as you play more. It may be frustrating, but the more you play the less frustrating it gets

winning poker is not about winning hands its knowing when to fold wait for the nuts
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GOODLUCK AT THE TABLES

patience? i disagree completely. its about making educated decisions about how you are viewed at the table by each player, how you view your opponents (loose, aggressive, fish, pro, tight preflop loose post, loose preflop tight post. the more reasons for making a certain play the better, whether it be limping in with AK suited because the last 5 hands a loose player has raised preflop, or pushing with any two in late position to steal the blinds because you've seen the small blind and big blind fold their blinds a substantial amount of the time. sometimes they will wake up with a monster and in that case at least you have the chance to outdraw. DONT FALL IN LOVE WITH MONSTER HANDS, look at it logically and try to figure out why they reraised you on a 8 9 10 suited board. you might be ahead but are probably not, wait for a better spot.

dont get mad when you get outdrawn, get mad if you play badly.