I’ve been listening to the P.O.T.U.S. ’08 channel on XM Radio lately (I know, politics is boring) and heard an interesting piece during the news segment that got me thinking a bit about poker. Okay, I think about poker quite often so this was another excuse.
Since I’m in sales I know that a lot of purchases are based on emotion. If you can get your customer emotionally involved in the product you’re presenting your closing rate shoots through the roof. In the news piece, the reporter was talking about a study that was done to see how emotion can affect your spending habits. They showed a control group a short movie about a boy and his mentor where the mentor dies horribly in the end and found that customers -feeling very distraught after the show- were willing to purchase bottled water at 4 times the normal rate. Another group was shown a different movie and they refused to pay such an exorbitant price. Their reasoning skills weren’t affected by their emotions at all while the other group clearly was.
What does this have to do with poker? Since we play this game for money it means everything. If you can’t control yourself after someone hits a 4 outer on the river to beat you it will cost you more money than the hand you just lost. I’m guilty of it and I think we all are to some extent.
Think of it this way. You just lost a little on that hand. How much more do you want to lose because of it? Let your emotions fly and you’re guaranteed to lose like no other. Reign them in, stay focused and patient, and the money begins to flow your way. Good luck on the felt and may the good cards hit your hand…..
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