“But how much did you win?”

It’s a simple question, but one that will drive the minds of poker players straight into the waiting area of the local mental hospital. 

If you are not immersed in the world of Betfair Poker Cash Games, your view is skewed into a belief that poker is all about winning money. Put simply: if you win money, you have played well, and if you lose money, you have not.

It is not just the non-poker playing population who believe this incorrect truth either. Poker players fall into the same boat, and these people generally fall into two categories. 

Those that really do believe that winning money is the correct measure, and go on tilt when they lose, and those that do not believe that winning money is the correct measure, but still go on tilt when they lose.

The first category of opponent is no different to the non-poker playing public. They both suffer from the 'Happy Hippo' syndrome. 

In the game of Happy Hippos, the goal is to collect more white balls that your opponents, meaning that the number of white balls that you amass becomes your measure of success or failure. 

People who believe money is the key to success believe that the cash represents the little white balls; this is incorrect thinking.

The correct measurement to use in order to define whether you have played well at Poker is the number of mistakes that you have made.

This is because you can make the correct decision and still lose money, hence the reason it is the incorrect measure. You cannot manage what you cannot measure. 

Therefore, measure mistakes - not cash – and you will manage your poker game much better.