[Cerril]

Not going to reply to most of your post since, as you said, everyone's seen this at some point in their career.

I made a similar observation though on one point, regarding the satisfaction of plays. It's the idea that if you had the choice of getting paid for a roll of a die, either wagering $20 to win $130 if you hit a 6 or wagering $20 to win $25 if you rolled anything but a six, you'd have the same EV but feel so much better about your wins on the first option. On the second, the losses would be unjustified and the wins would be expected.

It's the same reason we feel bad taking bad beats but rarely get that same elation. Our 'revenge', though, is the fully odds-justified draw-out.