Variance

Thanks for coming back for my fifth article. Last time we changed subjects and in place of ranges and the poker odds table, we talked about overlooked poker skills. The overlooked skills are unable to teach you the correct moves in tough spots after the flop, but they might help to protect your bankroll and make you a well-rounded player. Today I would like to talk about variance, another overlooked subject for those that play poker. Like the last time I wrote, I’m not teaching you about the cards when I teach you about variance. Again I would like to go over how important discipline and emotional control are when you play this game.

Variance is the major motivation for maintaining a generous bankroll when playing poker. It makes sense to ask this question: if you are great at the game, what is the point in having a bankroll? If you always won money when you played on Tiger Gaming, you'd never lose money for the rest of your poker career, right? I wish it were that easy.

The problem is, you'll realize that despite how faultlessly you play, you will sometimes still have negative days when playing this game. At times the poker hands you're dealt will be horrible and you'll need to just keep folding. Other days the hands you're given will be excellent, but of course you'll still lose money because sometimes your opponents just get lucky. It's a fact that occasionally you will manage to lose despite getting it in as a 90% favorite. Moments like these can cause you to think about playing online slots rather than poker!

If you aspire to make money playing this game, you would be best to realize that variance causes bad players to keep playing cards on real money poker sites. You need bad players to stick around to make money. Because you cannot wish for variance to favor you all the time, you will need to discover how to conquer it. Do this by using proper bankroll management and also practicing controlling tilt problems. Discover how to accept unfortunate situations and provided your bankroll has been properly maintained, you'll be winning again before you know it. If that’s too much work for you, I suggest you just download free casino slot games instead because you don't need emotional control to win those games. But that doesn't sound very fun, does it?