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"I keep getting rivered at poker"

If you play a lot of poker, especially poker tournaments and all you ever seem to do is get rivered then obviously it is very annoying but it doesn't necessarily mean that you are playing badly or doing things wrong. If you are getting your money into the pot whilst you are winning and players keep sucking out on you then you are making the correct poker plays, you must remember that luck plays a huge part in poker. As long as you keep getting your money in whilst you are ahead in the long run you will make profit playing poker.

There are some situation where getting rivered can be your fault as a poker player. For example if you are betting the minimum or very small pre-flop, on the flop, on the turn and then betting big on the river, you are making a mistake, unless you hold the absolute nuts. By betting too small you are letting players draw to make their hand and if they are getting the correct pot odds to call then you can only blame yourself for getting rivered a lot.

One solution to stop yourself getting rivered all the time is that you could think about playing slightly higher stakes if you can afford this. For example, the difference in skill levels between playing a $3 or $5 poker tournament compared to a $25 or $50 poker tournament is huge. The higher the buyin, usually the better the skills of the other poker players. In a $25/$50 poker tournament a 3x bb raise pre flop is likely to get a lot more respect than in a micro-stakes poker tournament. There will be muppets in all games, but there will also be a lot of better players, who can fold in slightly higher buyin games.

Being rivered can be very frustrating, but at the end of the day you have to take the rough with the smooth. You can't always win, even if you have the best hand, but if you feel you have tried everything and you keep getting rivered then I would suggest having a small break from playing poker and maybe read a few poker books to brush up on your skills, or read some of the other poker articles on our website and then try playing poker again after your refresher course and see if it makes a difference.