One Brutal Session

I've never liked bad-beat stories and I promised myself to never talk about them. So, I'm not. However, I must remind myself that there will be days like this...days where all hell breaks loose at the poker table and things happen that can not be explained rationally.

I'm not going into any details about the seven hour session I just sat through, that would violate my promise to not talk about bad beats. Really no one cares. You don't care about my day, do you? Of course, not. But I am learning how to handle days like today.

The cards today were doing things totally unexplainable. The mind tries to make sense of things, make rational and logical conclusions based on evidence that is presented it, but sometimes at the poker table logic and reason are no where in sight.

What I learned from today's session is that life goes on, there will be other sessions down the road, and not all of them will be like this one. I'm trying my best to see my poker game over the long term of a playing career, rather than focus on any one session or even one month of sessions. Today was a mystery, the cards were doing things that made no sense, and I don't want to beat myself up over it. I need to just move on.

Therefore, if you ever have a round of bad beats, a session that just seems to rip your guts out (and that's literally how you feel, isn't it?), then let me suggest the following:

1. Don't get upset at the other players and berate them.
2. Leave the table and get as far from the casino as you can.
3. Take the next day off, or maybe the next week.
4. Look at the long term...this particular bad session is one session among thousands...they won't all be this bad.
5. Take a deep breath, ask yourself, "Did I play well?" If you can say "yes", if you indeed played your best, then there's nothing else you can do. It was just a day when the cards were acting weird. There is no making any sense of it.
6. Forget about the day and just move on. Try to learn something from the day.

Well. I do feel better, now.