Foreword

This article is addressed mainly to beginners who just started their poker career. It will cover the short- and middle-term influence of luck at poker, describing of what you can expect in the next months. Furthermore I will give you advice of how to deal with up- and downswings.

Luck at No Limit Hold’em Poker

Every single hand can be played perfectly and still be lost. And this is not a rare exception – it happens quite frequently. The same procedure every day you play, again and again. On the other hand, you might play a hand really faulty and still win a huge pot. These short-run results do not depend on your skill alone. Fortune has a strong influence there. Still, it definitely pays off to play better than your opponents. Because in the long run, you will win about as much as you are better than your opponents. Of course there will be periods of hundreds or even thousands of hands you will lose – even against weak opponents. That is called a downswing. But there will also be periods where you will win significantly more than you “should”. That’s called an upswing. If those extreme events occur, it is important to act in the right way. The next two paragraphs will deal with this behavior.