[teddyFBI]

[ QUOTE ]

This actually has a nice side effect. Since the community cards would not have been the same if you had called preflop, you cannot feel bad for folding even if the flop should hit your mucked cards hard. This concept should help you concentrate on playing well instead of relying on luck.



Very well put, I think, and something I think people here should think about for a few moments if they haven't done so already. I tried to explain this to a friend of mine once when his mucked pair hit a set, and he thought I was just giving him the standard "don't stress over your mucked hand" advice. But online, as was pointed out here, there's actually a complex overlay to that because if it's true that each card dealt is randomly generated, then -- unlike in a real card game where the next card is predetermined (and hence one could say "look, I would have hit my set), online it's much easier to ignore whatever cards come, secure in the knowledge that the outcome might have been different had I called instead of folded.