The Importance of Patience at the Poker Table

Patience and discipline at the poker tables are key components of profitable play. Yet so many players get frustrated or bored and end up making questionable moves with inferior holdings – ultimately losing money. This article looks at the key skills required to ensure that you remain patient at the tables, and to ensure that your bankroll grows.

We start with an overview of where the profits come from at the poker tables, playing quality hands from good position and exploiting your opponent errors. We will then look at some of the reasons that people lose their patience and discipline and suggest ways to avoid this.

Hand Selection

One of the ‘facts of life’ in poker is that, over time, we are all dealt the same cards. Those players who win money make more when they are ahead in a hand and lose less when behind – in short they make less errors than their opponents.

One of the biggest errors that you can make in poker is to play a hand that has little chance of showing a profit over time, especially from bad position at the table. Sure, you may bet lucky and make a monster holding on this occasion – but over time bad hands show a loss, and your bankroll is likely to go in one direction… down.

There are many reasons that otherwise solid poker players lose patience at the tables. The most common is simply a run of unplayable hands which stretches on with seemingly no end in sight. While the individual player knows that poker involves making a long string of ‘good decisions’ the temptation is to play that medium strength hand from early position, just this one time.

Avoiding Mistakes

There are several ways to avoid making potentially costly mistakes like this. We will start with the most obvious suggestion – take a break. Poker is at its most profitable when played with a clear and alert mind. The very fact that a player considers making unprofitable moves is in itself a sign that they are no longer fresh enough to play.

Switching games, poker sites or even tables may also help. The fresh start aspect ensures that you go into the game with the objective of making fewer mistakes than opponents. An alternative solution is to play more tables. The advantage here is that you will have proportionally more playable situations, though this needs to be balanced with the lower ability to read your opponents accurately.

The final reason that players lose their patience and discipline at the tables is due to ‘tilt’. This involves an angry reaction to a bad beat and can lead to wanting to ‘get even’ with a particular player or even moving up stakes to try and get your money back fast. There are 2 ways to deal with tilt. The first is to be aware of when this happens – the second is to stop playing immediately you notice this and take a break.

To summarize, profitable poker involves patience and discipline – playing good cards from good position. There are many triggers that may cause you to lose this edge. The key to ensuring your bankroll grows rather than shrinks is to be aware of these factors and to either take a break from the tables or change games quickly.

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