JP Rocks
04-28-2005, 06:27 AM
Howdy all
Driving home from my weekly live game where a new guy busted me by rivering an inside straight to beat my kings, I started thinking... If I had won that hand, which I would have statisticall the next 10 times it came up, would the good feeling in those 10 hands equate to the gutwrenching feel of a river suckout? I dont think so. Why is it that good luck only ever seems to reward poor play? Why is it that we feel far worse about losing a hand when we had 42 outs than we do about getting into a situation where we only have 4 outs? We dont feel lucky, our spirit isnt lifted when one of those 42 outs hits because it was the expected outcome(i.e. spiritual EV=0). And when you lose the hand when you had only 4 outs, its not a big let down because you only had 4 outs (i.e. spiritual EV= -0.1). However, when you lose that hand with your 42 outs, your spirutual EV takes a huge beating, while if you consider yourself a decent player and you hit your 4 outer when you paid too much for it, it is almost embarassing (these are both negative spiritual EV). It just seems like being a decent poker player is -EV on the soul.
I know most of the discussions here are based on stats and probablility, and I know trying to quantify intangibles is pissing into the wind, but I just wanted to get this out and see if anyone else felt the same. In a nutshell, are the poker lows balanced out by the highs- especially if as a decent player, you expect to win... I dont think so.
Driving home from my weekly live game where a new guy busted me by rivering an inside straight to beat my kings, I started thinking... If I had won that hand, which I would have statisticall the next 10 times it came up, would the good feeling in those 10 hands equate to the gutwrenching feel of a river suckout? I dont think so. Why is it that good luck only ever seems to reward poor play? Why is it that we feel far worse about losing a hand when we had 42 outs than we do about getting into a situation where we only have 4 outs? We dont feel lucky, our spirit isnt lifted when one of those 42 outs hits because it was the expected outcome(i.e. spiritual EV=0). And when you lose the hand when you had only 4 outs, its not a big let down because you only had 4 outs (i.e. spiritual EV= -0.1). However, when you lose that hand with your 42 outs, your spirutual EV takes a huge beating, while if you consider yourself a decent player and you hit your 4 outer when you paid too much for it, it is almost embarassing (these are both negative spiritual EV). It just seems like being a decent poker player is -EV on the soul.
I know most of the discussions here are based on stats and probablility, and I know trying to quantify intangibles is pissing into the wind, but I just wanted to get this out and see if anyone else felt the same. In a nutshell, are the poker lows balanced out by the highs- especially if as a decent player, you expect to win... I dont think so.