Poker Tactics - Celebrate Good Folds

One of the simplest things to do when you want to improve is reinforce good behavior, by taking the time to celebrate your little victories on the road to better ones.

In poker, you will fold hands many times more than you will rake in chips from a won poker hand. If you are a good player then this will be the case because even with the right cards in a hand, the worst cards in a flop may mean making bets on that losing hand becomes a lost cause. 

One of the common human failings is that we tend to criticize ourselves when we fail, or don't measure up to our own high standards.  This is true in poker, where we can measure our success and failure with a simple number at the end of the day: how many chips did we win or lose.  This is a reality that many sports or hobbies share - a real tangible sense of accompishment that few people can argue with.

I believe that in order to maintain the discipline of a good player so that you can win at poker, you need to reinforce the good behavior of folding hands even when you think it may be a winner. Sometimes we cling to the hope, and that is all it is, that one more card may turn the hand around. But that is a wrongheaded belief that will lead to sinking more chips and ultimately losing.

So in order to combine this all into practice, when you fold a hand that you think might be winnable but you know is gambling then you should take the time to celebrate your good fortune when it turns out that was the right call.  You need to tell yourself that you just made a good decision on the way to victory. This is true because all the chips you don't lose on bad hands are more chips available for good hands when you need them.  And poker tournaments are about outlasting the other guy as much as they are about outplaying the other. 

So consider reinforcing your good folds.  When you see you wouldn't win the pot that should be celebrated as a victory that left you more chips to play with and let you outlast the others in the