[hencole]

My mates who are generally loosing low stakes online players do it for a number of reasons:

They enjoy the game (therefore they enjoy playing lots of pots)
To blow off steam
To gamble (they gamble on other things so poker is no different)
They put together a nice run and think they are better than they are
They look at the short term (winning a big pot is more important than winning in the long term)

I don't really understand though given the reasons they play that they have no interest in playing better. They play a few times a week both online and live and will loose money in the long term (not huge amounts as they aren't terrible). Given the amount of time they spend playing I try to educate them to play better. I tell them to have a read of a couple of books, think about pot odds more than they do, reavluate why they are raising etc and to have a look at 2+2. None of them take this advice. We'll be playing a home game and a hand will come up. Afterwards in a non-patronising manner I will go over the hand with them asking them their thought process and how I think they could improve their play in that situation. They don't want to know and seem almost convinced I'nm trying to decieve them in how to play. Usually I get responses like 'It just felt like the right thing to do'. I guess the main thing is that they look to the short term and don't have the patience to find out that poker is potentially much more fun and sattisfying if you win lots of money.