One of the hardest skills to pick up in poker is one which, on the surface, should be considered a simple one – dealing with defeat. Although most styles of online poker, especially No Limit Texas Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha, are generally considered by their supporters to be games of skill rather than luck, there is still a large amount of luck involved in the game.

Sometimes, players get unlucky and end up on the losing end of a hand which they thought they had a sure chance of winning. This can be an incredibly frustrating experience; however one of the keys of being a well balanced, well liked and successful poker player is being able to handle these defeats.

If a player can’t accept a disappointing loss and decides to lash out verbally, the two phrases that they are likely to use are ‘fish’ and ‘donk’. The term ‘fish’ is used to imply that the winning player went fishing for their winning cards and that, if they had played the hand in a way which the loser deemed correct, they should have folded earlier on in proceedings. If a player calls a competitor a ‘donk’ then they are simply using an abbreviation to compare the play of their adversary to that of a donkey.

If a player claims that they were ‘bad beat’, then they often have a good reason to feel aggrieved. A ‘bad beat’ refers to an instance where a player with high odds of winning a hand ends up losing.