How many times have you stared in disbelief and said, “He called me with THAT!” Most decent players know the poker mantra Don’t tap the glass. When you play poker you can make the absolute right decision and still lose, thanks to the poker gods and their whims. One of the hardest lessons you will learn in poker, is to continue doing something that isn’t working at the moment. What many people fail to comprehend is; you want people to get lucky, it’s how you make your money in the long run. And you should never explain or criticize a bad play.

The reason you should never criticize a bad play has to do with conditional reinforcement. To continue to play your best even when struggling it’s also necessary to understand conditional reinforcement..What is conditional reinforcement? Let me explain with the following example.

Suppose you were to buy a puppy and you decide that every time the puppy barks you will give him a treat. Your puppy would soon learn that to receive his reward all he needs to do is bark. This is positive reinforcement. In this case you would have a puppy that barks a lot!

Conversely, suppose every time your puppy barks you scold him. You would end up with a puppy that realizes barking is going to get him nowhere but into the doghouse, and will eventually cease barking. This is negative reinforcement.

Finally, suppose you reward your puppy when he barks the first three times. Afterwards, you sometimes scold him and sometimes reward him. After doing this for a certain amount of time you suddenly stop all rewards and only scold him. Well, your puppy is going to keep barking and barking because he has been conditioned to believe that eventually his bark will get him a reward. This is conditional reinforcement.

So how does barking puppies apply to poker? Most people who decide to play poker will respond in a similar way to our puppies, if they lose every time they draw to an inside straight they will eventually cease doing it, since there is no reward. Without a reward bad players would learn not to call with their longshots, much like our puppy it gets them nowhere. On the other hand, if a poker player were to win drawing to an inside straight and then intermittently get lucky drawing to inside straights he will continue doing it. The reason being, sooner or later he knows he will receive his reward. He will take all the scoldings he has to for that one reward.

When a player continually makes bad plays you win. Yes, occasionally they will get lucky and beat you but most of the time you will win. This is the reason why you want people to get lucky, with no luck comes no reward. No reward for bad plays means only good players.

The reason you do not want to criticize a bad play is quite simple, if you scold your puppy when he barks enough times he will eventually cease barking. Likewise, if you scold a poker player who has made a bad play enough times he will eventually stop making that bad play. Never criticize or explain a bad play, there is no reason to educate an opponent. And unlike puppies, people tend to catch on after 1 or 2 scoldings, noone likes to look the fool.

Think about it, suppose you play with Jason every day. Jason is a great player but, he makes the same unusually bad play ten times a day, and therefor is a losing player. Sometimes he gets lucky and wins but the majority of times he loses. If you were to berate him one of the times he got lucky, Jason may wise up to his mistake. Jason has now gone from a losing to player to a really good player. You have just cost yourself a lot of money, not by a bad play or being unlucky, you have lost money because you were dumb enough to clue Jason in that he was making a mistake!

It’s hard enough to win money playing poker, don’t force yourself to have to overcome your own stupidity in addition to everything else. Save the lectures for a classroom and let the bad players get their occasional reward, it will payoff in the long run.

i made it 2.25 to go pf, the bb called.

flop was AsQh9s. he cheked i bet pot.
turn was Qs he cheked I cheked.
river was Ks he cheked I bet pot

he called. he had AJ with no spade.

I didn't say anything. But i really was like how can you call?

hate it

I've come a log way on this yet have a long way to go, I admit.

I do my best and I've helped myself by being myself- the kind of guy that loves to laugh and make others laugh. It's helps me to laugh it off in a way where they have no idea I'm laughing at them, but the situation. When I get really mad, the last thing I'll do is look at people because they want me to steam and they'll that "What an idiot" look at me and it'll encourage me when I'm in a state of little self-control as it is.

Since the blowup I posted over a month back, I haven't really blown up and like I said, I'm getting better with this. I don't like when others tap the glass. I shouldn't do it either.

Originally Posted by slp

actually this is called punishment. negative reinforcement is the removal of a negative stimulus. an example of negative reinforcement would be buckling your seatbelt to stop the beeping your car makes.

Uh-oh. We're channeling AP Psych here. I did notice that and forgot while I was typing a response.

Originally Posted by phoenixdan5

I see what ur saying, but i honestly dont think u not yelling at someone when they suck you out is going to make a difference,

Then, it's a waste of your energy by that reasoning alone.