When I first started playing seriously about 5 months ago I was one of your typical bad beat whiners. I'd get all pissed off and go on tilt and be an asshole in the chat box or to my friends or my roommates, or get all down and think poker sucks or the sites are rigged, or whatever.

Then at the beginning of September I moved into a new apartment with a a couple of new people. One of the people who moved in to the new place is a good friend of mine, I've known for about 6 years. He was your typical recreational poker player who thought he was pretty good at the game (lived in Chicago and played quite a bit live and played only a couple times on the net when I transferred him $10-$20 to play with). He decided he wanted to start playing online A LOT more, after living with me for a while and seeing things like the HOH books, Cardrunners, P5s, etc., has started to realize he had no idea all of the aspects of the game of poker and he has a long way to go...don't get me wrong, my learning curve is really only a little bit ahead of his, so I'm not acting like I'm some expert or anything, but compared to him...I'm like David Sklansky...I'm sure you all remember how when you first started trying to learn the +EV way to play there were so many concepts you pick up on that never even crossed your mind before and it's pretty amazing...so anyway...I've been the one to teach him some of these concepts and his game has grown by leaps and bounds.

Don't get me wrong, he still plays small stakes and its not an overnight success story or anything, but you can see the progression in his game. He's very good at building a good stack in the early stages of a tournament w/o risking his tournament life, he also has that patience that a lot of people never seem to be able to fully grasp. Usually 3-4 nights a week we'll both be playing or I'll just sit in his room and watch him play and tell him what I liked or didn't like about a play, or if he is unsure he'll ask me and I'll tell him what I think I think the best options are and why and he'll make his own decision from there. One of the latest topics he seems to be hooked on lately is very aggressive bubble play...the last couple of times we've played we've seen him go from a player with an M of barely more than 10...to a guy with an above average stack after the bubble popped.

Anyway, to make a long story short...watching him play and the way he reacts to bad beats has helped me to eliminate that problem from my game. I watch first hand when he is about to blow up in a tourney after things don't go his way. I have to remind him, hey man relax...yeah that hand sucked, but you still have an above average stack...or, if you get your chips in and get a caller when you are ahead, you've forced your opponent to make a mistake and you've basically done the best job you can and you have to hope things go your way after that...yeah the opponent is a donk/fish/idiot/retard, but those are the calls you want people to make on you if you are going to be successful, it just didn't go your way that time.

When I play now, intead of getting all pissed off, I remind myself of the same things I tell him when he's ranting and raving and about to tilt off his stack after a bad beat...it's helped my game.

Another thing I absolutely cannot stand...is everytime I get home from work, as soon as I come in the door he comes busting out of his room with 3 amazing bad beat stories for me to hear. I usually just pretend to pay attention and give a casual..."yeah man, that sucks"...but what I really want to say is "I DON'T GIVE A FUCK, NO ONE CARES, BAD BEATS HAPPEN IN POKER AND UNLESS YOU LEARN TO TAKE THEM IN STRIDE YOU MIGHT AS WELL GIVE UP THE GAME RIGHT NOW". My god, bad beat stories are fucking annoying. Even more annoying is when he, or anyone else with a bad beat story, thinks they've taken the most ultimate bad beat ever and they are all dramatic and expect sympathy or who knows what they expect.

Bottomline is, I don't think I've ever posted a bad beat story on this forum...but I apologize to the guys who taught me how to play correctly (they post and read here often) and opened my eyes to all the resources available to improve, for being a whining baby when I took my own bad beats.

There is a luck factor in this game that can never be taken away no matter how much more knowledgeable you are or how good of a read you have on your opponent, you still might lose...all those things give you is an edge...not a guarantee.