Success at professional poker comes down to ironies and contrarian thought. You must act directly opposite of those both in winning and in losing. You must completely shut down all emotions and develop yourself into a machine. You must be ruthless and cutthroat and without any feeling or emotion. You cannot afford to get happy and high and you most certainly cannot afford to get angry and on tilt. You must make yourself into a computer, a calculator, a blueprint of fundamentals.
Ironically enough, a professional poker player will often succeed most when he loses. The typical reaction to a “bad beat” is to go on tilt and chase the losses out of anger. This is how the majority acts and conducts themselves and why online poker rooms are in business and why so few gamblers are able to go pro.
The true professional, however, will become ICE COLD after a bad beat. He will master his emotions, and master himself, and refuse to crack as he knows if he loses himself, he loses the game altogether. It is amazing how many poker experts and otherwise solid players cannot handle themselves and end up losing to lesser skilled players that are able to keep themselves together no matter what the circumstances. Yes, that’s correct, lesser skilled poker players often have a better chance of going pro and maintaining professional success by simply mastering their own emotions rather than the greatest card sharks of them all that cannot contain their frail emotions.