When Bad Players Get Good Luck

Here’s a complaint I read from someone who’s been playing poker for a while.

“I’m a Texas Holdem player and love it, but I often get frustrated when players make bad plays but end up winning nevertheless. It almost ruins the game for me when this happens.”

What advice or consolation would you offer this player?

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Hahaha get ower it!!!

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Poker is fundamentally frustrating that way. Playing better improves your odds of coming out ahead after a long series of hands, but you can always run into someone playing without much thought or skill and still lose a series of big hands in a row. For those that find this aspect of poker extremely painful, I wonder if other games might not be more rewarding… but that said, I suspect most people find poker at least somewhat challenging that way.

In general, I think poker favors those that can be more detached and objective, and that can focus on the quality of the decisions they make rather than on the outcome of individual hands. Those that complain vocally about the results of individual hands tend on the whole to be very weak (or at least not particularly strong), as that very response inhibits their ability to play well, even if they don’t let it turn into full blown tilt.

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My advice? Perhaps they should take up another game.

Poker requires a thick skin and the absolute ability to forget about the last hand’s results, good or bad. ■■■■ happens. Sometime a bad play wins, and a good play loses. Such is life.

And if this truth (and it is certainly a truth) “ruins” poker for someone, I don’t think they really understand the game they are playing.

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I do think some people take losses personally, and if they lose to a weak player, the insult is magnified. I agree with Yorunoame and Elvoid: It’s a chance to study the outcome and adjust to make optimal decisions. Thanks for these posts–and Kondrad, there’s truth in your response too! lol

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There’s no crying In Poker (or baseball) from the movie “ A League of their own “ .

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Poker is a gambling game.

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Play the game Aggravation (Chinese checkers) couple times then come back to poker. Thats aggravation for ya.

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Indeed, I can support this advice!

It seems some folks forget this fact. Yes, some skill, but wow, do cards matter!

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Here’s a thought: Maybe I should want people to make bad plays against me, even though I know they will get lucky and win sometimes.

They mostly don’t win though. If I subtract my losses from my wins, I end up way ahead.

Poker is a game of short term luck and long term skill. Always take the long term view.

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Yes, of course. Especially in real money, those complaining about bad play often lead me to think that they think they’d only really be happy if they were at a table where all of the other players were better than they were, so that they could maximize their losses.

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yup, the sooner you realize this fact the stronger player you would be.

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Jan poker is odds and luck. At any time a great hand and player can lose to a lesser hand and player in all forms of poker.
The river can ultimately end up deciding the winner that is a fact.
However these things while true happen in real life games they happen way more often in online poker( esp replay it seems). Due to not shuffling actual cards in front of people we have to rely on a Random card generator. Some are better than others but they all leave doubts in players minds, and the odds of a river beat seem to go up exponentially.
My advice would be and is…thats replay for you.

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I can guarantee you that Replay has really good RNG. I’ve play live a lot and I’ve seen some horrible bad beats happen all the time, 1 memorable moment in a MTT was a guy losing literal back to back all in hands with AA vs 2 different people with AK and both players happen to river the same club flush. Best believe the table exploded after the second bad beat, if it happened online some people would had been screaming that it was rigged against them.

But the fact is in online poker you play more hands per hour so you see way more hands like 3x more than live, add that people love to call a lot, you will often get to the river with many people so there will be some crazy suckouts. it happens it is part of the game.

Have you noticed that lots of people also seem to think that Pokerstars, GGpoker and other poker sites are all rigged against them? are all of them rigged against you? is live also rigged? or maybe that is just how the game is and since it is online with lots of recreational players and the fact that you see 3x more hands than live, you will naturally see more bad beats being dealt online. Which scenario seems the most likely?

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I have played a few sites over the years and find all have flaws including replay.
AA seems to be a lightning rod for people to lose on all sites IF allowed to go to the river.
Personally I find replay to be random towards seats and players , maybe a seat gets hot but that is true in live poker but I would not say certain players or seats have an advantage.
However I personally disagree that the RNG is great or above average, the amount of river losses is way too high. While it happens everywhere at replay it seems to happen at a much higher percentage.
In my opinion that is because many many players play the site not the cards, not the outs, not the odds. They have learned if you stay in the hand there is a good chance the river will reward you for it.
Also since there is no money involved the players who do that have nothing to lose, you see it less in cash games because there is a true physical loss involved, then you see the odds and the outs played much more, hence less chases and bad river beats , hence my reply is “Thats replay for you” a combination of the replay program and some replay players.

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i imagine people betting real dollars in a casino would not continue betting long enuf to get those incredible wins on the river. seems like adjusting to an online computer driven game should be the name of the game. NOW… let’s complain about all of the computer problems

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One thing is obvious to me. If you consistently go to the river hoping to make your hand you will not be successful in the long run playing Texas holdem. Period.

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Imagine if it happens in real money game. Ouch!

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Leave your emotions at the door.

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