Posted by Johnnymac 7:17 AM
I think that the Badger article that Fro posted last night is great - you really must be able to recognize good poker playing skills before you can actually apply them. I do have something to add to the article, though, because I think that the article only goes halfway.

Not only was it a bad play because the player with JJ gave the other player a chance to beat him by just calling and not raising - it was also a bad play because he didn't give in to his recognition that he was beat.

This is one of the primary signs, I think, of a good poker player: recognizing when one is beat and then surrendering to play another day. One of the clearest situations where this holds true is when the the flop cannot improve your hand but shows a pair or otherwise obviously completes a drawing hand right from the start. Sometimes your opponent will come out betting and sometimes he won't, but the higher the "winning" cards may be (ie 2 cards to a broadway straight or 2 face cards on the board), the more likely it is that your maybe be holding those cards and have your quality starting hand beat. Giving up and folding is especially hard for many players to do when they are holding a big pair because AA and KK and other Group 1 hands don't come very often and it's hard to let them go and admit defeat. Iif you can learn to dissociate yourself from past expectations and play only in the present you will make more money in the long run because of the money you save.

However, this also brings up a slight contradiction - that this particular observation seems consistent with the bad poker maxim of "any two cards can win." How can "any two cards" still be bad advice and how does this mesh with the concept of "quality" starting hands? Quite simply it's that quality starting hands are quality hands in expected value only in the long run. Over time, JJ will beat 63o, and many other poor hands, much more often than will the poor hands beat JJ, but JJ will not necessarily win all of the time. It's the all the time expectation that causes many guys to lose their cool and start to complain about bad beats and it's the good players who recognize this and shrug, "shit happens." Don't put yourself in a position for shit to happen to you (the point of Badger's piece), and if it does, recognize it and reduce its damage to your bankroll before you're really sorry (that's the point of my piece).

Great article find from Fro.

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