Doyle Brunson has made a very successful living as a pro poker player, thank you very much.

So you’ve had some success playing online Texas Holdem poker. That’s great. What makes you think you’re suddenly an expert at the game? Do you think you’re ready to leave your day job to play poker for a living? Hang on a second. Give this more thought. Before you make any decision regarding your poker career, you should take a moment to gather your thoughts and wrap your head around the idea of what it takes — I mean really takes — to play poker for a living…

1. Patience: It takes great patience. You’ll be playing poker every single day.
2. Game plan: What’s your game plan? You do have one, right?
3. No set income: If you’re used to getting a regular paycheck then get used to not knowing when or if you’ll get paid.
4. Less time for family and friends: Playing poker for a living will require your days, nights and even some travel.
5. Skill. Lots of it. Be prepared to go up against some of the best pro players in the game. And be prepared to lose. Oh, you’ll win a few pots here and there; you may even win a nice-sized tournament. But don’t get ahead of yourself. Remember…patience.

There are advantages to playing poker, whether at land based tournaments or online:

You can work your own hours.
You are your own boss.
You can take as much vacation as you like.
You can work wherever you want in the world.
You can work in your underwear. Well, you can play online poker in your underwear, but you won’t get away with it in Vegas, sadly. Or anywhere else on the planet.

So what is a bad beat exactly? A bad beat only happens when statistically there is a “come from behind” event. The longer the odds of the second hand making the beat, the worse the beat feels.

Most would think that after a bad beat the best thing to do would be to forget about it and walk away. However, a wise poker player would see that there just might be something to learn here. This is the time when you should clearly analyze the elements that went into this experience.

When analyzing your play you may find out you have succumbed to cognitive dissonance. The theory of cognitive dissonance states that contradicting cognitions serve as a driving force that compels the mind to acquire or invent new thoughts or beliefs or to modify existing beliefs, so as to reduce the amount of dissonance (conflict) between cognitions. As an example, conflict makes us uncomfortable, so we attempt to relieve that discomfort by coming up with new beliefs or behaviors in some way to reconcile this conflict.

So how does this help me you ask? The discomfort we feel when we take a big hit at the table gives us an opportunity for analysis and improvement. This only comes if our cognitive dissonance comes form an honest, factual assessment of the hand in question can we improve. Sure maybe the guy across from you did make a bad call but maybe your all in move looked like a semi-bluff to him.

Cognitive dissonance give the suggestion that a little bit of discomfort can be a good learning tool, if in fact you choose to use it.

Bad Beat