[Jailhouse]

I am very close with people who donate regualarly. I am fascinated with the psychology of the whole thing and have put a lot of thought into why these people keep coming back for more.

I think a major part of it is seeing someone else succeed, and thinking that they can replicate the success because it looks and feels so easy when a person is winning. That intoxication of winning sticks with a person for a long time even after enduring loss after loss, which losers ALWAYS atribute to bad luck. It is delusion that pays winning players rent. Without delusion the poker industry (and probably the gambling industry as a whole) would most likely collapse.

Losing players can't accept that in order to win at poker, you need to know something that your opponents don't know. One of the losing players I know hasn't read a single book or studied the game at all but watches me play high limit games and he actually thinks he could come in there and beat it. It amazes me that he can't recognize that he is getting crushed at $5 SNGs and believes that he can beat a 100-200 game. It's mind-boggling but the mind of a true gambler works differently that of a winning player. He has convinced himself that he is a winning player because of a few "scores" when in reality he has lost thousands upon thousands chasing the dream.

Losing players are clueless as to how much work must go into the game before you can extract anything out of it. Be thankful for this delusion that pays winning player's rent.
-J-house