[Kurn, son of Mogh]

The counter-intuitive nature of the game (you touched on this) is one of the key reasons it's so hard to excel at poker. For example, the concept in stud that the 3rd best hand should raise a bet by the best hand in order to get the 2nd best hand to fold appears on the surface to defy common sense.

In chess, if your opponent makes a terrible move and you counter it with the perfect move, you will almost never lose. In poker, a similar situation can lead to a loss often enough in the short term that you can become irrational and lose the discipline necessary to play your best game.

Most people mistakenly view poker as a card game that has a betting aspect added. This is a fundamental misunderstanding of the game. Poker is a betting game to which cards have been added to set up the betting situations.

Poker is profitable because most people who play think they're playing a card game. The winning player knows that is a faulty assumption.