Updated on 21 Feb 26 by
Barry Carter
Poker Expert

You can still win if you run bad

Bencb shares how you can turn bad sessions into good sessions, regardless of how the cards fall.





poker
Bencb

I want to go deep today and explain how you can turn a session where you run bad, into a winning session by losing less.

It’s a crucial skill IF you want to become a winning poker player.

You will be losing more often than winning. And most of you can’t handle that.

You are hoping for wins, easy decisions and setups in your favour. Avoiding the pain. The pain of difficult decisions and bad beats.

If you think about it, that’s where our society is heading towards. Constant distraction and dopamine kicks. Not being able to sit there and deal with our darkest thoughts and shitty feelings.

If you can't even deal with your pain in real life, how do you think you are going to do that in Poker?

Poker amplifies real life

poker
Don't try to avoid the tough spots

Poker often amplifies what we go through in life. Entitlement, Anger, Sadness, and Aggression will be multiplied in Poker.

That’s why it is important to only play Poker when you are in an emotionally stable situation.

That’s why meditating before your Poker session can be so powerful. You give your pain, and negative thoughts its attention. This gives you the power. The power to stay in charge of your emotions. To stay present despite feeling bad or sad.

And this ability is extremely powerful in Poker.

Playing well despite feeling some form of anger or disappointment is incredibly powerful.

You cannot deny human emotions or suppress them. The key is to remain in your A game despite how you feel.

It is about getting shit done no matter how you feel. Poker is a beautiful reflection of what happens when you cannot control your actions.

Some of you misunderstand this concept. You believe it is about suppressing emotions or faking something. No.

You can still work out if you don’t feel like it. You can still study even though you might not be in the mood. This is discipline.

Discipline

poker
Don't show up unprepared

Discipline is nothing more than self-care. If you truly care about yourself, you will do what is required to do in order to build the life you want.

Some of you show up to poker sessions with almost zero mental preparation and wonder why you keep tilting. Not working on your mindset, discovering where their tilt issues stem from. You simply don’t care enough about becoming the person you want to become.

You "kind" of want it but you don’t love yourself enough to give it everything.

Maybe you study a little bit here and there but let's be honest, nothing really remains permanent. You don't make long-term progress. Stuck in the same place. Blaming variance. Blaming whoever.

Grinding stakes, losing money or simply not making enough to really make it.

But are you really giving it everything?

Giving everything to also be mentally prepared to remain calm, strong, and stoic in hardship? No.

Truth is, you don’t care enough. It is not important.

You know what you need. Stop looking around for advice.

Sit down and start preparing, daily!

And meditation or any form of self-reflection is the first step.

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Poker Expert

Barry Carter is the editor of PokerStrategy.com and the co-author of The Mental Game of Poker 1 & 2, Poker Satellite Strategy, PKO Poker Strategy, Endgame Poker Strategy, GTO Poker Simplified, Mystery Bounty Poker Strategy and Beyond GTO. In 2025, he won the Global Poker Awards for Best Book and Twitter Personality of the Year.