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Part of whats happening is that people experience gambling decisions emotionally, and are confused by the meaning of their results, as well as the game itself. Instead of thinking "I have no idea whats going on" they pretend that they understand whats going on.

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I think this is particularly insightful.

I experienced something vaguely similar to this last night when I was playing a home game with some friends. We started talking about Tiffany Williamson at the WSOP when one my friends asserted that this woman "knew what the hell she was doing."

I scoffed, and the guy came back with, "Well, she's a lawyer so she can't be stupid."

It occured to me that this guy simply didn't have enough understanding of NLHE to accurately assess anyone else's skill level. He simply saw Williamson's results and reasoned that this was an indication of good play.

I think the "she must be good because she's a lawyer" line of thought further illuminate's Snowball's comment. Doctors, lawyers, accountants...etc start playing this game and assume that their intelligence gives them an automatic edge over other players. When their results don't back this up, they engage in conspiracy theories to explain the discrepency.