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However when things are not going good and luck spins fate in a negative direction, the world will be aware of it. This is especially true for POKER players. Name me a poker player who thanks the stars for his suckouts, coolers and just good runs he has had on a consistent basis and I will name you 100 who will moan and whine about every cooler, suckout, beat, pot they have every lost. It is the most consistent thing in our industry - A bad beat story.

All of us are guilty of it, but lets introspect what do we get out it. Nothing except sharing the negative feeling of remorse we find ourselves feeling at that moment which is important, but if we find ourselves doing it on every hand we are the poker equivalent of that guy who keeps getting dumped by his new girlfriend every two weeks and is complaining to his boys, friends, neighbour, dog about how he can’t believe it happened to him.

Variance creeps her ugly head in both the positive and negative direction. The question is how to deal with them. Most bad runs will be coupled with bad play and gives us a great opportunity to plug leaks in our game. When we are running good all the minute mathematical mistakes we make doesnt show itself because we outdraw, outkick , out last our opponents like its expected. Add to that the confidence boost people feel when they start minting money and the game seems too easy to beat.

But when we are running bad, everything adds up. Many people are prone to negative ev plays , when you are running bad its a great time to actually look at your game and see which part of your poker arsenal is maybe hurting you more than helping you on a long run. One thing I personally did when i was running bad (in my mind) was to document in a live game every hand i played as the game went on and at the end of my session analyse my play. I did this for a week and became aware of many things to do and not do in certain situations and it helped me swing positively huge in a short period of time.

Being an online player, one has access to this more. Look at not just the hands you lost, but the hands you won. Be honest to yourself- did i get lucky there?, Is that how i always play the hand?. If it is your naturally tendency to play those kind of hands in that style and in hindsight it seems negative ev one should remove it from the arsenal. Bad beats are part of this game. Its our job to try limit the situations we put ourselves in that will potentially lose us the maximum amount in the long run. Then jumping over the bad beat hurdle seems effortless.

In the spirit of luck, I have attached a hand below which is kinda sick.
http://www.fundoopoker.com/eng/hands/post-hand/270

I remember at the end of the hand I was confused how I lost till I looked it up and started laughing.

How do I deal with it, I was just happy it happened on a 0.10/0.20 table and not a 100/200 table :). Anyways gonna grab breakfast. Later y'all