[ElSapo]

Thanks for the responses so far - one point, which you may or may not have seen, is that on the turn I get check-raised in the example hand (hence the call-down reference).

The point to all this was not "damn that variance," or "I hate those loose players." Mostly I was pondering that this -loose play- people gripe about (wrongly) gets a whole lot less -bad- depending on post-flop play, especially against so-called "unknowns" who get paid off when tighter players opt to simply call down.

Not much of a brianstorm or eurkea moment, but something I think about when I get drawn out on and pay off -- how much the worst of it were they really taking, when I put in, say, 3 BB behind and 1.5 BB ahead (assuming they got there on the turn).

ElSapo