The Balance of Risk vs Hard Labor

Yesterday was not a good poker day. I lost 25% of my play money. The reason? I got carried away by the high pots.

Like I said, I don't play roulette, but sometimes the pot gets so big the risk seems acceptable. Of course, everything is just chance then, so I ended up losing a lot. My background is basically conservative, so I was trying to balance the risk with the reward. I was doing a pretty good job at it too until the pot got the better of me. When I started losing, I got more desperate to get things back, and I lost my discipline.

Today, I tried to get the lost play money back. It was hard labor, an extreme exercise of patience. Did it pay off? Somewhat. I'm back where I started, I got as much play money as last Tuesday. A few notches below my target, but I got it sound. Hard labor.

I get really disappointed when the pot gets high, and thing turn out in my favor at the turn and river. That's when I feel the urge to really gamble. This afternoon, however, in my attempt to force the patience back in me, I noticed that I made good decisions today overall. Many times I was tempted to take a risk, I held stopped myself and folded, controlling myself not to get disappointed at another lost opportunity. More often than not, my folds were good choices. Had I succumbed, I would have lost most of what I had left.

Balancing risk can be tough, but discipline increases the chances you'll live another day. Once you have that, it's time to analyze and learn to reduce the risk. Hard labor may be tough, but its odds of getting the job done are better than chance.