Losing a big hand is a grim feeling. In some cases, you’ll lose because you’re outplayed. In others, it will be the turn of a card that decides your fate. Either way, the pain is real.

Having said that, losing a big hand in poker is not the end of the world. If you’re exercising proper bankroll management, which you should be, the hand itself shouldn’t have too much of an impact on your session.

What’s more important is that you can handle the emotions that come with losing a big hand. So that you don’t go on tilt and make even more costly mistakes.

Going on tilt

Tilt is a term used by poker players to describe someone losing control of their emotions. Specifically in a way that harms the quality of their play. It’s a very undesirable state. It often leads to devastating errors that you could usually avoid.

In the case of losing a big hand, the risk is that you’ll experience anger or frustration that impacts your play. If you succumb to these states, your judgement will be affected. And it will be difficult to know yourself whether you’re making the right moves.

Technically speaking, going on tilt is not a mistake in and of itself. But rather it’s the root cause of mistakes that follow after losing a big hand.

Spewing the rest of your stack

This is the most common error after losing a big hand. And it’s a costly one as it usually results in your early exit from the tournament. In this case, the thinking is along the lines of, “I’ve lost most of my stack, so what’s the point in carrying on”.

You might not even clearly think this. It could bubble up as an emotion based in frustration. Either way, it’s immediately obvious from the outside why this is so damaging.

In these moments, you’d do well to remember the old adage: “chip and a chair”. It means that you can still mount a comeback even with a stack of one big blind. It can and does happen. So, knuckle down and see if you can work your stack back up.

Chasing losses

This is another version of spewing your stack, but usually manifests as a less direct mode of tilting. Instead of spewing all your chips in one foul swoop, you’re instead changing how you play to try to gain back what you had. You feel entitled to the chips you lost.

You might make the mistake of going after the player who took your chips. Hunting them down to reclaim what’s yours. Or, take a more general approach and go after anyone and everyone on the table until you can claw it back.

Chasing losses in this way is not going to work. Plus it could result in many more errors that compound on top of your original mistake. So, instead of thinking or acting in this way, continue to focus on making the best decisions possible.

Playing scared

On the opposite end of the spectrum, you might find yourself playing scared after losing a big hand.

This can happen due to the shock of a bad beat. It makes it hard to “trust the cards” and think that all future hands will go against you. Or, it can happen when you are outplayed. It forces you into your shell to avoid any future confrontations.

Shying away from the action is not going to get you anywhere. The blinds will gradually eat your stack and you’ll become an easy target for aggressive players. They’ll quickly figure out that they can attack you to win pots.

As with all errors mentioned here, it’s all about refocusing and playing your strongest poker strategy.

Over-adjusting

After you’ve lost a big pot, you’ll need to adjust to your new situation. That means taking stock of your stack size, your opponent’s new stack size, and how the pot could impact the table dynamics.

It’s also useful to take notes on your opponents to glean new information. As well as awareness of your own table image and how losing the big hand could effect other’s perceptions of you. These are all useful adjustments to make.

The error here is to start over-adjusting when you lose a big hand. By taking the exact opposite approach to the one you were taking when you lost.

For example, if you lost a pot because you got caught bluffing. An over-adjustment would be never to bluff again. If you called someone down and they had the nuts, an over-adjustment would be never calling anyone down unless you yourself have the nuts.

Adjustments are great if they make sense, but stick to your strategy. If you think you made a huge mistake in the pot, take note of the hand history. Then analyse the spot later to see what improvements you can make.