My personal reverse psychology hack to make you love to lose in poker

I can probably do that apart from if I'm one outered.

This sounds like a good way to turn into a compulsive losing gambler. Lol. I think this might actually be what compulsive gamblers have in common. They get a high from losing.

To me it makes more sense to psychologically reward yourself for making the right decision. So like if you do everything right, get all the money in then lose to a 2 outer then celebrate that you played well knowing that you will profit in the long term. I don't see why you should celebrate losing though.

Have you ever met anyone who loves to lose money? And no, they don't get high from losing, it's from winning.

You already get a psychological reward from making the right decision. You don't need to "cheat" yourself to be happy if you are happy already. Why celebrate losing? No pain, no gain. The more you suffer, the more you improve. That's the law of life. But you need to find a mechanism to cope with those painful experiences. A common thing among all successful people is that they are the biggest losers. Failing and losing are just learning experiences. It's impossible to achieve anything without ever failing. Keep that in mind and smile when you get sucked out.

I agree with a portion of what you're saying as far as failure being a part of the process and a step towards success.

However, I look at it from the perspective of classical conditioning (think Pavlov's dog). A behavior that is rewarded is being conditioned to be repeated.

What if you punt off your stack and lose? Do you really want to be psychologically rewarding yourself for that? In that case I think it's actually healthy to experience some mental discomfort so you train yourself not to repeat that action.

With poker the disconnect is that you can play perfectly and still lose. That's when you need to circumvent the conditioning loop so you don't become overly results-oriented, making -EV plays out of fear.

I understand you're approaching this issue more from the perspective of wanting to prevent tilt. I think you can use your general idea. I would just prefer to approach it as rewarding yourself for making the right play (even if you happen to lose) rather than rewarding yourself for losing. That way you're preventing tilt and also conditioning your mind to make + EV decisions.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20160721-the-buzz-that-keeps-people-gambling

bbc

Why gamblers get high even when they lose

https://whywesuffer.com/problem-gamblers...

Reframing losing to serve you better is a choice that not many people realise they have.

Not sure I would suggest anyone to celebrate when losing, but I think you are on the right track. Getting accustomed to roadblocks and obstacles being a part of the journey instead of feeling like a failure when you don't succeed is huge if you want to reach fulfilling goals.

In a similar reverse psychology vein, the idea of "needing" poker losses to offset other gambling wins, can take the pressure off of the losing experience. Either way is a win of sorts.

This seems like nonsense to me. I’ve found that the best path is to focus on decision quality and trust that your edge does reveal itself in a big sample.

Being happy or sad due to whether you win or lose isn’t the move. You want to be indifferent on each all in. If you got it in good, you’re going to profit eventually.

No need to drink champagne and get giddy over a loss.

We could just ignore the emotional aspect of being human, or try to overrule it with how rational we are ... but that strikes me as bullshyt. So you develop ways of dealing with potentially deleterious-to-results emotional behavior other than denying them.

Ya this is unlikely to work.

Nothing will work really.

Best you can do is find some things that can help cope with losing.
But were all just wired to hate losing and nothing can really change that.

You don't think someone like Phil Hellmuth or any top pros with all there money
would have figured out a way to remove tilt if possible.

Some people are born with a much better ability to handle losses. Like Chip Reese
and Tom Dwan. I really think too neither of those guys is smarter than any other top player.
There abiltiy to cope with losing is a massive advantage they both have. But they too will
still be affected.

But thanks for the suggestion. But I've read many books and meditated and tried 100 other things.
Again things can help somewhat, but will never completely eliminate. GL

When I take a bad loss I have learnt to accept this is part and parcel of the randomness of poker which I have not control over. No matter how much control I can exert over the cards, I know (now) that the world moves in it's own circles.

I Agree that instantly laughing when your opponent shows you the goods is a good way to make your psyche recognise this. It's also a great way to let your opponent know that their play will not put you on tilt and there are no hard feelings. It often works to my benefit and they go on tilt when that it what they were trying to do to me in the first place.

Another thing I do if a player shows me a bluff (especially with 72) is immediately burst into laughter and often say "Wow, what a great play" with a hint of sarcasm in my voice. I have managed to turn the tables of quite a few players this way whilst I watch a wave of red flood their face.

Even when I take the baddest of beats, I am able to laugh, shrug it off and move onto the next hand.

I'm also a big fan of meditation, generally.

A lot of whining. Hitting your toe on the table feels less painful when you shout and curse than when you laugh and keep it funny? A fact is a fact, and the last answer is correct. Common sense is required; otherwise, winning at poker is not for you.

My message is not to say that you should love losses or seek them out. You need to teach your brain to interpret these situations in a more positive way. And that happens by changing your physiology—essentially signaling to your brain through your body that the situation is not harmful. Just basic stuff in this topic.

It is interesting

This theory rests upon the premise that there is something to be learned from the failure and that Hero will learn the right lesson. If Edison tries to make a light filament out of aluminum, steel, and tungsten, he learns something with each iteration. By knowing what doesn't work, he gets closer to finding what does work. That process doesn't work at poker.

Compare that to both sides when 72o beats AA. What has each party learned? We already knew 72o is worst starter and AA is the best. We already knew poker is a game of chance and ATC can win or lose any given hand.

Some OMCs go AI pre with AA because they don't ever want to get sucked out again. Did they learn a good lesson from that prior loss?

OP, your theory holds no water.

What helped me avoid tilt was to recognize my tilt triggers and then walk away from the table. Rack up, go exercise, walk around the parking lot, go home. Anything is better than playing poker at that point. I can always come back later and try again.