You're sitting with pocket eights and a very loose aggressive player has just raised the pot in front of you. You call, and the flop comes A83. He fires out a pot-sized bet, so you just call.



The turn is a harmless 5. He bets the pot again. This time you know he's calling so you push all in. He doesn't hesitate, and calls immediately. He turns over A4. When a 2 hits on the river, you are left with a sick feeling in your gut.

These moments test our resolve. Can we keep playing good poker, making sound decisions? Can we stick with our strategies? Or, do we start making wild plays to try to catch up.

The classic follow up is getting a good, but not great, hand and overplaying it. Like, you have AJ on an A94 board, against a super tight player. He bets the flop, and you go all in, only to get called by his AA, and find yourself drawing dead. Yo top it off, you knew better.

When lady luck slaps you in the face like this, you need to avoid tilting off chips. The classic instinct is to gamble wildly at the next reasonable chance. You want to get those chips back. This is a big time tilt.

If you find yourself steaming after a bad beat, be smart. Stop playing for a bit. Get away from the table for a few minutes. Then come back stronger than ever.

Remind yourself that you had played great in that losing hand. You can't control the fact that he got super lucky. There is almost always some chance you will get hit with a bad beat. It's rare that your opponent is drawing dead. Therefore, you need to get used to having this happen.

This type of event is compounded if you're running bad. When you on a long losing steak it seems that anything you do goes wrong. Opponents make bad calls, and suck out on you.

Your good hands run into better ones. Your opponents make bad calls, and hit their draws. Then, you finally get all you chips in with AA versus 99, only to see two nines hit the flop.

You haven't made one single mistake, and you're getting killed. Poker is a tough way to make an easy living. In the long run, this will come back to you. It never feels like it, but you must believe and understand this.

It's the chips you lose making mistakes, when you're tilting, that don't come back. Done too much, this can make a winning player a loser, maybe even a big loser. Avoid tilting, and keep yourself profitable. Good luck at the tables.