Quote Originally Posted by aokrongly
Oh, BTW Chardrain, I took a peek at your blog and I'm guessing you posted this to remind yourself as well. I saw alot of "this is frustrating" type stuff where you didn't do as well as you wanted in an MTT or whatever. A quick piece of advice as a "thanks for the post" - try to take some of the emotion out of what's going on. Did you play your A game? Yes! then the results are what they are, but you did your job. If the answer is NO, then find out why and correct it.
I definitely posted it as a reminder. I don't use irc or ventrillo so I use my blog as my time to vent (which probably makes for a not so very nice read). I know that I tend to get into the frustrated, feel the poker gods are against, don't understand why I am not winning tons of money mentality. And my feeling is that many (most) other players do to.

Taking the emotion out of the game is easy to say, but not as easy to implement. It is human nature to think that you are somehow getting cheated when you lose and you see and hear how well others are doing... It is also human nature to think that your luck must change, that the poker gods must start letting you hit your flushes, that if others can hit 2 outers so can you. And it is this mentality which will decimate your bankroll. For me, reminding myself that poker is a long term game, helps me to not fall into that dangerous tilt mentality.

Poker can and will be frustrating. The basic steps of tightening up your game, learning position and odds should make anyone at least a break-even player. But learning how to deal with the frustration of poker is, in my opinion, the first step in becoming a winning player.