TheRake
10-14-2003, 01:21 AM
frequently I come to this forum and see various people venting after a bad beat. I have been guilty of this at times myself. After spending so much time thinking about the game since I have started playing I have come to the following conclusions...
This "sucking out" is not so much an indictment of the other player(s) skill as it is a weakness in my own game. I know that at the low limits I play my opponents are generally weaker/looser than players at higher limits. So what does this have to do with my game? Well for starters my hand reading skill is not very good. I feel that if I know going into the game that my opponents will play more hands (in fact any 2 cards) I should be able to compensate for this. If my hand reading skills were good, all that is required is that I expand the possible hands my opponents may be holding. This does not keep them from drawing out on me, but it does allow me to make better decisions.
In TOP Sklansky states that the fundamental theory of poker is "Every time you play a hand differently from the way you would have played it if you could see all your oppenents' cards they gain; and every time you play your hand the same way you would have played it if you could see all thier cards, they lose....." This leads me to my next point.
By reading hands more effinciently I give myself the best possible chance to apply the math I have tried so hard to learn since I started playing. I am by no means an expert at the math, but I feel I do have a better understanding than most of the people I play against. furthermore I am always trying learn. When the hand reading skill is good and the math is good you give yourself the best possible chance to minipulate the betting in order to benifit your hand as much as possible. This doesn't mean you win every hand. In fact sometimes it simply means you saved a single bet. Over the long run that single bet you have saved a thousand times adds directly to your bottom line. One should not look at a single session or a single week or even a single month and decide they are a winning or a losing player. Take pride in playing the game correctly and know that in the long run the math doesn't lie. It is frustrating to have a strong hand beat on a miricle river card, but have faith that you played correctly and move on to the next hand.
I have often heard people say it is frustrating because people make the miricle draw and then get up and leave the game before they have the chance to win it back. This is especially true of the internet game. However, truth be told, for every player that takes your money and leaves there are thousands of others just like them. If you don't win your money back from that person there are many more just like them lined up to return your investment many times over.
It is true I play the game to win, but there are so many other satisfying reasons to play. I take pride in the time I spend studying the game....I take pride in making a "good laydown"...I take pride in making the pot 1 bet bigger when I have the best hand or winning a pot when maybe I had the 2nd best hand. In the end it is important for me to just enjoy playing the game and learning the game, because the cards don't always fall the way I think they should. When all is said and done I will win money simply because I am willing to study the game more than most of my compitition. I assume most of you reading this are the same way. This being said next time someone makes a bad play or "sucks out" on the river instead of verbally abusing the person for thier lack of common sense just tell them nice hand and move on to the next round. If they get up and leave realize that the person who takes thier seat may pay you off double what you just lost.
In conclusion i just want to add that I don't want other peoples play to dictate how I feel about the game. If I never made mistakes maybe this would be different, but like most I make many. If I can't enjoy striving to play the game at high level or take pride in the fact that I made a great play on a certain hand, maybe I should be looking for another hobby. After all the world could always use more bowlers /images/graemlins/laugh.gif
This "sucking out" is not so much an indictment of the other player(s) skill as it is a weakness in my own game. I know that at the low limits I play my opponents are generally weaker/looser than players at higher limits. So what does this have to do with my game? Well for starters my hand reading skill is not very good. I feel that if I know going into the game that my opponents will play more hands (in fact any 2 cards) I should be able to compensate for this. If my hand reading skills were good, all that is required is that I expand the possible hands my opponents may be holding. This does not keep them from drawing out on me, but it does allow me to make better decisions.
In TOP Sklansky states that the fundamental theory of poker is "Every time you play a hand differently from the way you would have played it if you could see all your oppenents' cards they gain; and every time you play your hand the same way you would have played it if you could see all thier cards, they lose....." This leads me to my next point.
By reading hands more effinciently I give myself the best possible chance to apply the math I have tried so hard to learn since I started playing. I am by no means an expert at the math, but I feel I do have a better understanding than most of the people I play against. furthermore I am always trying learn. When the hand reading skill is good and the math is good you give yourself the best possible chance to minipulate the betting in order to benifit your hand as much as possible. This doesn't mean you win every hand. In fact sometimes it simply means you saved a single bet. Over the long run that single bet you have saved a thousand times adds directly to your bottom line. One should not look at a single session or a single week or even a single month and decide they are a winning or a losing player. Take pride in playing the game correctly and know that in the long run the math doesn't lie. It is frustrating to have a strong hand beat on a miricle river card, but have faith that you played correctly and move on to the next hand.
I have often heard people say it is frustrating because people make the miricle draw and then get up and leave the game before they have the chance to win it back. This is especially true of the internet game. However, truth be told, for every player that takes your money and leaves there are thousands of others just like them. If you don't win your money back from that person there are many more just like them lined up to return your investment many times over.
It is true I play the game to win, but there are so many other satisfying reasons to play. I take pride in the time I spend studying the game....I take pride in making a "good laydown"...I take pride in making the pot 1 bet bigger when I have the best hand or winning a pot when maybe I had the 2nd best hand. In the end it is important for me to just enjoy playing the game and learning the game, because the cards don't always fall the way I think they should. When all is said and done I will win money simply because I am willing to study the game more than most of my compitition. I assume most of you reading this are the same way. This being said next time someone makes a bad play or "sucks out" on the river instead of verbally abusing the person for thier lack of common sense just tell them nice hand and move on to the next round. If they get up and leave realize that the person who takes thier seat may pay you off double what you just lost.
In conclusion i just want to add that I don't want other peoples play to dictate how I feel about the game. If I never made mistakes maybe this would be different, but like most I make many. If I can't enjoy striving to play the game at high level or take pride in the fact that I made a great play on a certain hand, maybe I should be looking for another hobby. After all the world could always use more bowlers /images/graemlins/laugh.gif