If you can’t learn to handle a bad beat, you will wind up losing more than just your chips.

Judging by the threads on the CardsChat.com General Poker forum, lots of players have a hard time handling a bad beat. At any given time, there are two or three threads asking for advice on how to avoid going on tilt after a perceived “bad beat.”

If you are going to lose control every time someone hits a two-outer on the river to win a hand, you are not going to have a fun, profitable, poker career. Learning to control your emotions is a key to your ultimate success (or failure) as a poker player, especially in multi-table tournaments.

There is nothing worse than investing several hours in a tournament, getting close to the final table and losing 70-80% of your stack to some idiot who risked his entire tournament life by chasing a flush or a straight, despite the fact that you were betting aggressively after the flop and turn. So many times I have seen players lose a hand like that and just shove the next hand out of anger.