Results
Results can be an emotional roller coaster, if you end up valuing them more than you value your tactics. Great poker players do not care if they win or lose a hand, they care about whether or not they evaluated the situation properly with all of the information available to them at the time.
If you get mad every time someone else "gets lucky" or get excited every time you "get lucky", then you're playing the game completely wrong. How so?
When you made the decision to raise did you know that an ace would stab you in the heart? Of course you didn't. So why would you get mad when it does? Do you have any control over what card lands? No? Then don't get mad. Don't waste your mental and emotional energy over something you literally had no control over.
You can, however, control how much you buy in, so make sure you have no emotional connection to the money whatsoever. It may be challenging if the stakes get high in something like a WSOP event, but try to leave your emotions at the door, and remember, you're playing a game.
Evaluation
So what did you know at that time? How much could you have known had you been paying closer attention? How can you better prepare for the next hand? These are the questions you need to constantly be asking yourself during and after a game of cards. This is how you get better.
Observation
Start paying attention...to everything. Playing poker isn't about the cards. Huh? Yeah, the cards don't matter at all. Anyone can figure out the basics of how the cards, stats, or various strategies "work" in poker. What actually matters are your opponents. You need to understand them if you are to beat them consistently.
How do I understand how someone thinks who I haven't even met? It's not that hard actually. You just watch how they act in between hands, watch how they act during hands, talk to them if you want, and continue to fill out a mental file on them over time. This catalog of information is your guide to profits.
Opponents
In my former two year "career" of sorts, I played casinos far less than I played online. I actually preferred live poker, but didn't have the bankroll to sustain a proper level of profitability, compared to online. Even still, my proudest moments playing live poker are when I folded kings, pre-flop, face up, twice, in big games. Both times, the other guy had aces as well as the reddest faces I've ever seen.
Was I nuts? Well, if you consider putting 100% faith in your ability to read people crazy, then yeah I was very nuts. However, I found that I could innately get what people's intentions were after playing with them for an hour or so. Sometimes it was more difficult, as good players can sense you and change their patterns to throw you off. The key thing is to try to get to their level, and the only way to do that is to first understand what their intentions are.
You've been observing them. You should know by now who's drinking what, who's staring at the drink girl every time she walks by, who's watching the football game when they're not in a hand, and most importantly, who's paying attention. People intently focused for an hour straight are probably playing the game on a different level than Joe Budweiser cheering on the Pats. Start with small information that appears valid and build up on top of that.
Tactics
The reason I folded kings pre-flop both times was because I was paying attention and plotting against my opponents. I saw how they acted when they had monsters. I saw how they acted when they didn't. One guy would breathe so heavy that the vein on his neck would literally throb when he had it. His knuckles would curl up, white as ever, with his hands planted to the table. He'd freeze and try to look past you with his sunglasses on, rather than at you. I had never played with him before, and was only at the table a couple hours, but I had seen him have the absolute nuts twice and he acted the exact same way both times.
Could he have had queens or ace king? I highly doubted it, as when he didn't have the best hand, he tended to lean over and calmly cover the lower half of his face with his hand. This was his "normal" poker face since you so rarely get a great hand in hold 'em. His eyes would glare through his greasy sunglasses right at you, beckoning you to retreat to your chips. No, he definitely had it, this was not an act, his intentions are to basically freak out and convey to me exactly how he is feeling. So, I wasn't going to waste my money on something as obvious as that.
Through simple observation and evaluation I was able to employ a completely outside the box tactic that worked both times. Did the results matter? No. Although I never folded kings preflop any other time that I can recall, I would not have been upset if the opponent had an inferior hand. Why?
Separation
I continually wanted to separate myself from the field. I wanted the other players to either fear me or think I was a complete idiot, so that I could aggressively box them into corners later in the game.
It wasn't just these two instances, either. I'd always tend to do seemingly crazy things. For example, I'd randomly over bet the flop, when I felt my opponent missed, or 8X his min raise. Why? Separation. I was making it harder to pin down my tactics, while clearly standing out as "different" player.
If I come across as loose and crazy, then I can tighten my game up as I go, so when people start to call me down, I actually have it. If I come across as very tight, by folding top pair on the flop face up in the first few rounds, then I can loosen my game up and become an aggressive wrecking ball to these same players just hands later.
Image
Over time, what you are doing is building up an image. You are molding and changing how people perceive you as the game progresses. If you know how people perceive you, then you can better understand their intentions, and thus better plan how to exploit this information.
How would I play against a player acting this way to me? How would Joe Budweiser play? It makes their moves more predictable, and puts you in the driver's seat for the entirety of the game.
Have Fun
Poker is a grind, if you make it one. The reason I left my job to play poker was because I really enjoyed the real game of cards. I loved to compete, I loved to improve, and the entire process was extremely satisfying. Profits followed, and maybe I had a little too much fun with those, but I still had fun the entire time I played for a living.
This was possible because as soon as I wasn't having fun, I stopped playing. I'd take days or sometimes entire weeks off without even thinking about cards. This took the pressure off, and made the game feel fresh when I came back, since I actually wanted to come back.
Conclusion
Although aspects of the game have changed, the fundamentals haven't. You are basically trying to buy your plastic chips low and sell them high, which anyone can do with the right approach. These lessons helped me succeed while I was in poker and maybe they can help you too...
