How to Be a Courageous Poker Player

Greatness in anything requires a certain measure of courage, and poker is no different.  What does it mean to be a courageous poker player?  Most often, it means having the willingness to take risks.

Many people have that concept backwards in their minds.  Their first impulse is to hold back and wait until they feel courageous before taking risks.  But courage never comes from holding back - it is born from the willingness to take action despite fear and uncertainty!

Think about that concept for a moment and consider how it applies to poker.

Is it possible to excel at poker without taking risks?  Is it possible to become a great player by holding back and taking the safe and easy way every time?

At its core, a lack of courage comes down to a fear of failure.  If you never take risks, you feel safe from the threat of failure.  But any successful person will tell you that success cannot come without failure.  In fact, most of them stress that you must "fail your way to success" - and the same is certainly true in poker.

Anyone who has ever done anything great had to first do it badly and build on their skills.  How many great poker players do you know that were born playing well?  Probably none.  They simply kept playing until they got better and better, and eventually great.  This process of growth and mastery will usually involve an element of risk.

But risk isn't such a bad thing if you switch your focus from what you stand to lose and focus instead on what you might possibly GAIN.  Rather than worrying that you might fail, ask yourself what you stand to gain from taking greater risks in poker games.  Skill, improved focus, growing confidence, lessons learned, stronger intuition, money?

Understand that there is a difference between being courageous and reckless.  You don't want to become cocky and leap without knowing where you're going to land first!  The trick is to learn to take CALCULATED risks.  And you do that by weighing the potential gains against the possible consequences.   

There is an easy way to tell if a risk might be too big for you at any given time.  All you have to do is ask yourself what the potential consequences might be from taking the risk, and consider whether you would be able to accept them if it doesn't work out in your favor.

You've probably heard it said that you should never bet more than you're willing to lose, right?  The same can be said for any kind of risk.  If you don't think you could accept the consequences, it's probably better to take smaller risks for the time being.

In fact, you can greatly reduce your likelihood of failure by gradually building up to bigger risks as your skill evolves.  Start with small risks.  With each success, your courage will grow and you'll feel strong enough to take slightly bigger risks.  With each bigger risk you take, your courage will grow even stronger and you'll be able to take bigger risks still . . . and so on.

Remember that building your courage is a process.  Courage grows naturally every time you face a fear and take action despite it.  Even when you fall down and face negative consequences, you can learn from it - and build your courage through the wisdom of picking yourself up and trying again.

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