I’ll admit that when it comes to complaining in poker, I’m one of the guiltiest people there is. I complain about bad beats, I bitch about how stupid other players are, and I also whine about how much rake rooms take out of pots. To sum things up, I pretty much complain anytime the cards aren’t falling my way.
And just because I’m an amateur player doesn’t mean I don’t have the right to complain. After all, look at how many pros sit there and constantly bicker about opponents and cards. Phil Hellmuth, Mike Matusow, and Scotty Nguyen are a few players who spend just as much time whining as they do looking at their cards. Anyways, I came across an interesting article that’s changed my view on the subject of complaining in poker.
The basic summary of the article is that constantly complaining and being defensive about your poker game can actually be considered a huge chip leak. After all, if you’re always convinced that it’s someone else’s fault or an outside force causing you to lose, you will never seek to get any better….you’ll remain stuck!
Another thing about complaining is that it takes your focus away from the game at hand. Instead of thinking about your next move or what an opponent is doing, you’re still hung up on what happened three hands ago. Emotions also get put on your sleeve when you engage in this behavior thus making you easier to read.
Finally, you will fall into the classic psychological rut of learned helplessness. When you’re in this trap, you start to paint yourself as a victim and you may even subconsciously make bad plays to stay in this situation. And while this might seem far-fetched to some people, I can definitely understand the concept of learned helplessness. I can also clearly understand how harmful complaining can be to one’s poker game.
