[Jman28]

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jman i feel like i know what you're trying to say, but i'm not so sure. lemme know if you agree with this?

if you're saying what i think you are, you're basically just saying that everything evens out in the end...so hoping for a certain card to fall/complaining about a bad beat is a waste of time/energy? or in other words, wrt to the, 'Don't hope your opponent bets the turn so you can checkraise.' statement - you're saying as long as you are making the play you think has the highest EV, if it doesn't work out one time it's really nothing to be mad about again because in the long run it will work out and show a profit?

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Yes, you have it pretty much.

For me, ideally, it's approaching poker as a complex mind game that you want to win. You win by making the best decision as often as possible. That's the only measure of your success.

The main thing that got me thinking about this was noticing the thing that most players do, where they check the river with a marginal hand and say to themselves, "Check behind. Check behind." Then the villain bets and they think "[censored]. Ass. [censored]. Weiner."

All that happened is that they now have one more opportunity to make a good decision in the hand. There shouldn't be a good reason to be mad at the opponent betting. It's just another point in the game.

A chess player doesn't get mad when his opponent makes a move and then hits the little clock thing just because he has to move again. That's how the game works. It's just his turn again.