What is it about being able to play poker online that really drives whether you’re better than someone else? Your ability to read someone? How well you’ve trained yourself on the odds? How big your stack is? The answer is yes – to all of it. But what that amounts to in the eyes of your opponents as a whole is infinitely greater than the parts themselves. And that’s how much they fear you as a result.

But there’s internal fear, as well. And how you overcome that drives the direction on how successful you’ll be at the tables, as well. One thing I always struggle with is the fear of losing big, as I’m sure every poker player at any level has come face-to-face with at some point. How can you wager what you’re afraid to lose? And what level of fear eventually caps how much you’re willing to bet? You’d better know yourself before you’re put to the test in a house game for your car. OK, maybe that’s being a bit dramatic, but how scared you are to walk out a loser is definitely amplified when the stakes add another zero onto that end number.

Some gain strength through fear. Like they said in Fight Club, you have to hit the bottom before you can heal. Or something like that. How does that apply to poker? Quite simply, you can’t truly appreciate what you can lose unless you’ve lost it all already. And from that experience gains control over that same fear when it surfaces again.

For others, it takes its toll, and pushes you out of the game altogether. And you don’t have to be sitting across from someone at the table to fear them. They can be some avatar on your computer screen, waiting silently while the cursor blinks down your decision time, and strike fear into you all the same. It’s how you handle it, and how you dish it to others, that ultimately defines you as a player.

In the end, you can’t be afraid of another person at your local US Poker Rooms because of the cards they may or may not hold, or you’ll never beat the man in the long run. You mine as well not even try if you’re not holding the confidence along with the aces. Like in any situation, the perception of reality is just as important as what’s real itself.