Dealer Resource

One major advantage of online poker play over play in a casino is there is no need to worry about any show of emotion. There are no opponents present to react to your outbursts or read your body language. You can laugh, cry like a girl, swear or pray, and there are plenty of items at hand that you can break or attempt to damage without having to pay a fine - presuming you are playing at your own place.

The only thing you want to leave alone is the computer. People and pets sharing the apartment with you will have probably learned by now that they better stay away from the serious poker player. Anyone who hasn't learned yet is fair game.

The advantage however is a tricky one and may turn treacherous and dangerous for your mental health. Many believe that containing your emotions is bad for you as a person and as a player: the more you abstain from expressing frustration, the more likely that accumulated frustration is to influence your decisions and might eventually result in a tilt.

When discussing emotions experienced during poker sessions, players most often mention negative ones. Recounting their "flashes of anger", of "blind rage", and of "going totally berserk," many feel guilt. They like to evoke the Japanese tradition of rubber dolls representing the management and officially serving as a means of alleviating stress.

Before we accept this solution wholesale, however, we need to recognize that the Japanese culture differs greatly from ours, and as a result psychological make up also is radically incompatible simple duplication. Despite the rubber doll stress relievers, and a very liberal view to things such as porn and simulated violence, the Japanese, especially in the marketing sector of the middle class have an alarming incidence of suicide.

So, when viewed through this lens, the soundness relieving our pent up frustration on inanimate objects can be called into question. Indeed, many trials lean to the conclusion that the violent expression of frustration is not a stress reliever, but the exact opposite.

When considered in a logical way most people will reach the conclusion that the main cause of the frustration is not diminished but may in fact be increased by the routine pounding of a rubber ball. It only serves to raise our stress levels rather than lower them. Additionally, when one comes to realize this, the very fact that the so called stress relieving pounding of the ball has been imposed by ones superiors is likely to multiply the frustrations.

Applying this to the poker player, it is safe to say that a player who is using such a method of outward expression of frustration is greatly distracted from the game, probably even more so than if they chose to quietly fume. All emotion that reaches excess negatively impacts intellectual capacity, especially in those areas that are responsible for the outbursts in the first place. Fear can thwart purpose and creativity can be stunted by excessive joy.

To be able to contain anger (and we are not talking about "swallowing" lifetime frustrations like unfulfilled love or lack of appreciation) during a game should in fact be better and teach the player some discipline and poise in general. If it takes some effort at first, it should become easier and better for your health and career with a little time. If it doesn't, it is possible to take a break, quite the one worst game of your life or even stop playing poker altogether for a while.

About the Author:

The author is a successful limit cash game player. He plays poker online and receives Gutshot Poker Rakeback as well as Rakeback at Doyles Room.

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