Is it better to accept coolers than try to avoid them?

I've been thinking about coolers a lot recently.
Sometimes we lose with a very strong hand and spend a lot of time thinking about what we could have done differently.
But if the money went in when we were clearly ahead, maybe there was nothing to fix.
Trying to avoid every possible cooler could also make us too passive and cause us to miss value.
So where is the balance?
Do you think good tournament players simply accept unavoidable coolers, or are there usually warning signs that experienced players can recognize before committing their whole stack?
I'd be interested to hear how other players approach this.

Accept them, but be selective.

The balance is where it's +ev , which will vary for every hand and every spot.

Cash players can use chip ev, tournament players layer ICM on top ; both follow the numbers and accept the coolers.

Kinda depends I guess.....

If when the money went I was ahead it's all good(I mean I'm not happy about it) but I just move on too the next one.

Now if I stupidly call off with 40bb or deeper and get it all-in against the tightest nit at the table when I hold JJ or QQ vs his obvious KK or AA....I'll be giving myself a good kick in the ass for days 🤣.

Now if I'm facing a maniac with a high VPIP and I get it all-in with TT, JJ, QQ, KK or AA(obviously lol) I'm pretty happy. But then my goal is to final table and win not just a min cash.

Cheers!!!

I would start from defining: what is a cooler? For me it is the situation when I put chips in the middle having a very good reason for it - statistical advangage and big chance to win - but result is a loss.

So, it is by definition a correct play. Avoiding it, would mean not proper play, calling instead of raising with advantage etc. In a long term it would be a loss.
So my answer is accept them, definitely.
BUT
Always analyze such situations later on - was it really a cooler or just a mistake?

But what exactly would an "unavoidable cooler" be?

That's something I think about a lot because in poker, things can change completely depending on the situation. The same hand can be a cooler in one tournament and a hand where you should have found a fold in another situation.It depends on the stack sizes, blinds, tournament stage, position, board texture, the opponent's range and, of course, how the betting develops. A strong hand on the flop can look completely different by the river after the board changes and the opponent's actions give you more information.Sometimes you get two big hands against each other and there really isn't much you can do. But other times, we call something a cooler simply because we lost a big pot with a strong hand. Maybe there was a warning sign on the turn, maybe the bet sizing was telling us something, or maybe the board became dangerous and we didn't adjust.That's why I have a hard time saying that a cooler was completely unavoidable without looking at the whole hand. Poker is not a game where the same situation always has the same answer. Everything can change depending on the circumstances. For me, the important thing is to review the hand and ask what information I had at each decision point. If I made the best decision with the information available and still lost, then I can accept it as variance. But I don't want to call every big loss a cooler just to avoid admitting that I could have played the hand better.

Let's use a hand that just happened to me as an example.

I was a short stack with 9 BB, sitting in 14th place out of 15 players, with 11 players getting paid. I was dealt AKo and went all-in. The chip leader, who had 101 BB, called my all-in and showed 92s. The flop didn't help either of us. Then a 9 came on the turn, and nothing came on the river to change the result. I lost with AKo against 92s.

So, was this an unavoidable cooler?

I don't think it's that simple. At another point in the tournament, in a completely different situation, the same players involved in this hand might have played it very differently. My stack, the blinds, the tournament stage, the position of the players, the ranges and even the pressure of being close to the bubble could all change the decisions. That's why I think we have to consider many different factors before saying that a cooler was unavoidable. In poker, the same two players can make completely different decisions depending on the situation. Sometimes a bad result is simply variance, but sometimes there may have been a decision earlier in the hand that could have changed the outcome. For me, calling something an "unavoidable cooler" without looking at the whole context can be misleading. Poker is much more complicated than just looking at the cards that were shown at the end

hoachec said:

I've been thinking about coolers a lot recently.
Sometimes we lose with a very strong hand and spend a lot of time thinking about what we could have done differently.
But if the money went in when we were clearly ahead, maybe there was nothing to fix.
Trying to avoid every possible cooler could also make us too passive and cause us to miss value.
So where is the balance?
Do you think good tournament players simply accept unavoidable coolers, or are there usually warning signs that experienced players can recognize before committing their whole stack?
I'd be interested to hear how other players approach this.

Click to expand...

I think that’s the right balance. You can’t avoid every cooler, but reviewing the hand afterward helps you know if it really was unavoidable.

fzap1983 said:

I was a short stack with 9 BB, sitting in 14th place out of 15 players, with 11 players getting paid. I was dealt AKo and went all-in. The chip leader, who had 101 BB, called my all-in and showed 92s. The flop didn't help either of us. Then a 9 came on the turn, and nothing came on the river to change the result. I lost with AKo against 92s.

Click to expand...

Not a cooler. That's a suckout. Now, when we say suckout we normally assume that we outplayed some bum and bum got lucky, but in this case with 102bb vs 9bb, calling with any 2 cards is the right play (provided that it was heads-up), so Villain wasn't a bum. But the lesser hand did win with luck. In this case Villain knows that he has a minimum chance of about 14% to beat us while we only threaten 9% of his stack and knock someone out close to the bubble. He has to call because playing for the suckout in this case is actually profitable.

As to the OP's question, a cooler can happen on any deal, so if we play to avoid the cooler, we basically fold every deal. Just play your strong hands strong and in rare cases something might tip us off to a bad beat but otherwise if our KK loses to AA or some such, just take it on the chin and move on.

The best solution if it's Tournament play - - > just don't enter.

I think it’s better to accept coolers as part of the game rather than trying to avoid them. You can’t control when they happen, only make the best decision possible and move on to the next hand. Dwelling on them can easily affect your next decisions.

hoachec said:

I've been thinking about coolers a lot recently.
Sometimes we lose with a very strong hand and spend a lot of time thinking about what we could have done differently.
But if the money went in when we were clearly ahead, maybe there was nothing to fix.
Trying to avoid every possible cooler could also make us too passive and cause us to miss value.
So where is the balance?
Do you think good tournament players simply accept unavoidable coolers, or are there usually warning signs that experienced players can recognize before committing their whole stack?
I'd be interested to hear how other players approach this.

Click to expand...

I think that the balance is in playing the difference between "I lost" vs “I made a mistake.” 😂 If the pot comes in with a strong hand against a range you were comfortable facing, sometimes you just have to accept the cooler.
Stacks, board texture, sizing, changes in villain's aggression, etc can be warning signs. I'll go over them later but I don't want the threat of coolers to make me scared. 🃏

A cooler is not a bad beat. A cooler is when both players have strong hands and neither makes a mistake. The answer then is you have no choice but to accept coolers.

hoachec said:

I've been thinking about coolers a lot recently.
Sometimes we lose with a very strong hand and spend a lot of time thinking about what we could have done differently.
But if the money went in when we were clearly ahead, maybe there was nothing to fix.
Trying to avoid every possible cooler could also make us too passive and cause us to miss value.
So where is the balance?
Do you think good tournament players simply accept unavoidable coolers, or are there usually warning signs that experienced players can recognize before committing their whole stack?
I'd be interested to hear how other players approach this.

Click to expand...

I think accepting coolers is simply part of becoming a better player. If I got my chips in with a strong hand and was clearly ahead, I try not to look for a mistake just because I lost. Otherwise, I could easily become too cautious and start losing value in good situations.
At the same time, I don’t think every big loss should automatically be called a cooler. Sometimes the action, board texture, stack depth, or opponent’s tendencies are giving us warning signs. For me, the key is reviewing the decision rather than the result. If I would make the same play again with the information I had at the time, I can accept the loss and move on. Variance is part of poker.

I accept them; I have no choice.

you have to accept and move on. it will drive you crazy if you keep thinking what if.......

hoachec said:

I've been thinking about coolers a lot recently.
Sometimes we lose with a very strong hand and spend a lot of time thinking about what we could have done differently.
But if the money went in when we were clearly ahead, maybe there was nothing to fix.
Trying to avoid every possible cooler could also make us too passive and cause us to miss value.
So where is the balance?
Do you think good tournament players simply accept unavoidable coolers, or are there usually warning signs that experienced players can recognize before committing their whole stack?
I'd be interested to hear how other players approach this.

Click to expand...

"Do you think good tournament players simply accept unavoidable coolers"

The only thing we can do in poker is study to avoid making mistakes. Therefore, we accept the results of unavoidable situations of all kinds.

🤔🤓