Sometimes being a better player really sucks!

[Mr. Curious]

It sucks because you do not see the bets you save, so you only have the thoughts of how your good hands are continuously beaten and feel like a total waste. I feel like all I do is lay down AA, KK, or QQ and never win with them any more. Even after I talk someone into showing me that they had the better hand after I muck, I feel frustration that the hands are not winning, rather than relief that I made a good lay down. Perhaps it is just the frequency of the lay downs that is causing this, or results orientated thinking from starting with the best hand and losing. Still sucks right now /images/graemlins/frown.gif

[_TKO_]

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results orientated thinking from starting with the best hand and losing

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[Colonel Kataffy]

Well, you'd probably be just as frustrated, if not more, if you played all your losing hands to showdown. So the being a "better player" really has nothing to do with generating your frustration. However, being a "better player" does help you deal with the frustration because you understand varience and that money is made from bad players who wouldn't otherwise play poker if they didn't suckout every now and then.

[Mr. Curious]

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results orientated thinking from starting with the best hand and losing

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I knew that would be quoted when I looked over my post before submitting /images/graemlins/smile.gif

I heard once that a bet saved is money in your pocket. It can be easy to forget that not losing your stack because you know when to lay a hand down is just as important as getting someone to call for their stack with a worse hand.

[_TKO_]

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I heard once that a bet saved is money in your pocket. It can be easy to forget that not losing your stack because you know when to lay a hand down is just as important as getting someone to call for their stack with a worse hand.

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I wasn't aware that you play NL. I'm mostly a limit player where laying down a big pair is incorrect much more often than it is in NL. Big pairs can be very difficult to play in NL, so kudos to you for maintaining your ability to lay down hands when you are fairly sure you're beat. It will always be difficult to get over the feeling that certain hands deserve to win. It's always going to be at least a little disappointing when you finally see AA-QQ and have to lay it down.