Losing Emotional Control

There is a multitude of ways to lose money when playing poker, but one of the most common methods is when you have lost emotional control.

Emotional control can be lost in many different ways and most of them will be individually tailored to your own set of personality traits. When you do lose emotional control it is important to realise it as soon as you can.

This is a lot harder than it seems, but it is very important. Losing emotional control at the poker table is like unblocking a dam. If you are not careful you can be quickly consumed and drown.

Writing about your flaws is a great way of understanding them and bringing them forward in your mind. After you have completed your poker playing session you should spend a little bit of time reflecting on your game. During this period of reflection ask yourself if and when you lost emotional control.

Write it down and then ask yourself why? To help you understand why you may want to ask yourself why it would make logical sense to feel the way you felt. Write the answer down. Then ask yourself why is this logic incorrect and also write the answer down.

After writing those first few things down you want to write down your correction so you know how to handle it differently next time. Next right down some of the more prominent problems into a warm up plan and read them just before you play.

The more you do this the more advanced warning your brain will give you in the future. This gives you a greater chance of not losing emotional control.