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One of the key concepts to get your head around, which is probably as important as any strategy that you can learn or study, is how to manage the variance. Make no mistake, a career in any poker tournament, you have days or weeks, you fly where all your tractor hit, you win all your races and you get treated just the right cards at the right time. At the same time, there will be days and weeks where nothing goes, and the only thing you can be sure of is that you leave with an unprecedented ego and its tail between its legs.

I have seen too often in an explosion of new players on the scene, running ridiculously good for a short period of time, to have higher levels and be back by the battery faster than you can say &”all-in”. The reason for this is the variance. Every poker player has been beaten by the stick of the variance, and each player will be affected by this new. Poker is a game of probabilities and averages so that the record should be square, and we must prepare for the roller coaster.

So when the poker gods decide to release the curse of the variance on us, how we face, so that we can learn something and come out the other side a better player? Although most of the time, we slow down we just put it in a race accident, the first thing to do is stand back and assess your game.

A common theme amongst successful players is that when they experience a period of success, complacency can sometimes set in (usually at higher levels to what the player was used to playing as he now has more money and can afford these games), and mistakes can creep into their game. This could come in the form of playing too many hands pre-flop, being a little trigger happy with the all-in move, or just using those high-risk, high-profit moves too much, and they just aren’t sticking like they were a few weeks ago. If you assess your game and find this to be the case, then you probably just need to go back to basic ABC poker for a few sessions and let things iron out. It is also a good idea to use effective bankroll management principles and drop down to smaller games.

The other problem I find when being on the wrong end of variance is your mood and attitude to the game. When you are constantly getting your chips in with the best hand only for your opponent to get lucky and eliminate you, it’s hard not to feel the whole world is against you. It harbors negative feelings towards the game and you lose your focus. This has a snowball effect as you start to make bad decisions and lose your edge over the game. It is sometimes a wise move to stop registering and even take a few days off to refresh, get the negativity out of your head and come back with a clear mind hungry for success at the top of your game.

There is always no matter what you do, no matter how well you play, you are still only to be broken. Unfortunately, this is only part of the game and as long as you keep what you have to manage – you can focus and attitude – it will eventually turn around and you’re sitting on top of the new world.

Respect for the variance, and reconcile with it. It is part of this great game we play, and by being aware of it, and having positive and the wheel turns in your favor over time, will help go a long way in a poker career with long-term success.

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