Merlin I think you and I both have come to realize..When people are "whining and crying" theyre actually just releasing some of their own acknowledgement of not playing the way they should have. I think when we all have met the bad beat or the donk player that got to us in the end we realize we could have played it different and lasted alot longer..But venting is good for the soul..and thank goodness there are forums for people like me(lol) who need to let loose sometimes or another...

I have learned that patience is a virtue when playing with donks, unless I am high suited or paired tight I foldem..It seems to keep ya around longer eventhough when I play online I get gut fellings which normally I wont take a gamble on. When the gut hits I at least get thru the flop and if I hit then I continue to play unless I dont see a definate win coming my way..Now in real tourneys against actual people, thats a different story casue the knack I have for reading them and drawing out the bluffers always pays off for me...But tight is always right no matter what the stakes are if you truly wanna win...

i was in the 60 dollar turbo event and in 7th place final table i had p aa i was up against the chip leader who on the flop which was a 5 7 he goes all in infront of me. of course im allin. he turns over 7 7 the turn is a q and the river is a 7. i just put my head down and almost cried.

Hey Merlin,

Just read this blog. Very nice. You've probably seen my posts about online poker being rigged. It's not. The whiners need to play live poker (cash or tournament) and see what kind of cards show up. I'll bet they'll whine abut live poker being rigged also.

I guess I do whine about whiners and namecallers. Note that I didn't include a "Bad Beat" forum in this one. It's because it "enable's" an inordinate amount of "bad beating".

Let me tell you a "bad beat" story. When I first started it was uncanny that the UTG player kept catching my mid-pairs. I thought "this game is rigged", "this is a conspiracy", "Pokerstars is rigged" - then I got to the chapter on position - oops.

A close read of many "bad beat stories" show the lack of understanding of the game of the "badlybeaten" and what can you say about the guy who calls an all in with Q4 then hits 4 on the turn and 4 on the river to bust your AA ? Somethings can't be defended against whining won't help. I'm naturally impatient and combative dealing with these "ways of the game has", being more cool with whiners and namecallers has too. I'd rather use the time to see how I could have played better or avoided being busted.

This week I watched the Heads Up championship - all the top players big money at stake - HORRIBLE BAD BEATS - not a single name called. I imagine when Matasow, Shekan or Tony G (I swear I'd punch that guy out if he got in my face screaming and spitting) gets up that'll change. Winning, being the cutest, smartest, fastest the best should (of course it doesn't always) confer some grace - some class. If you're Michael Jordan of course you hate to lose but to call lesser players names and publicly, negatively berate their skills dimnishes them less than you.

Just win baby......

Merlin333

Yes, Merlin,
you whine and complain all the time.. You know I am kidding.
I have taken what some people and myself call bad beats .. howver., I would not have won a bad beat jackpot. What most online players dont understand is that can happen in real game play because the majority have never played live. It happens in poker. Sometimes it just does, even from good players. I have even lucked out a few times.

I have whined some, but I think mine was frustation and I was searching for something positive from it. When I first started foruming and posting, I saw a section for bad beats etc, so I assumed they wanted us to do it. So I did a few, then I realized it wasnt positive feedback but venting, so I quit.

GLA

I won't say that "all the blogs are full of complaints" I'm a member of about 7 other forums, I read a lot of blogs and the fact is there are many more positive, constructive blogs than not. Having said that and with the understanding that it is not reasonable to expect all blogs to be positive, that negative blogs tend to cause a bigger flurry of responses and they "stick" with you more than positive ones. I have
come to, what seems to me, an inescapable conclusion - some people (apparently many poker players) are just really comfy with whining about that which they know will happen.

What am I talking about? I'm talking about all of the "I'm quitting poker because....", "I had ## the other person had ## - he called me and busted my ### %$^%#&#%"! "I can't get a break on poker site name because each appears regularly in these blogs>, "I can't win because some donk always calls my :Js::Jc: with :Th::Jh:", "I'm not going to play with beginners","I have to vent after so and so played $$ to my $$" and on and on and on.

In the past two months I have taken what seems to me many call "bad beats" - so what. This is the game where that happens. It seems to me to be the same as a lifeguard complaining about getting wet. "Beats" will happen wherever you play, whoever you play with, whatever your
skill level, at any limit you play for as long as you play! Bad beats don't happen just at "Riverstars", just online or just in low limit games - I've written several blogs to that effect - showing the range of players and games "beats" happen . I haven't checked before I started this ( you can) I don't think I've written a single blog lamenting my sad fate/woe is me/ I'm mad now at my having caught a "bad beat" - though I've written several examples of having played well (I know too few and far between). I would not even waste my time playing if the outcome was to feel sorry for myself.

Those who know me even a little would not say I lack a competitive spirit - in fact they and I'm sure people who know me well would say the opposite. I am not a braggart I've only played pretty seriously for about a year and a half and while my game is, at this stage, not as consistent as players of higher skill - I got game when I'm on. How have I developed what little skill I have? I have wasted absolutely no time whining about bad beats - what I have done is analyzed what happened to better defend against the same fate in the future, more often than not I could have done a better analysis during play, played better than I did and I would have reduced (not eliminated) some of the beats I took.

Know what I found in my analysis of the the vast majority of "bad beat", "what happened, why I lost this time" stories? My approach would do more to improve their game too.

Developing the skill of being able to properly analyze a hand is a valuable tool to help your game - If I had a nickel for every time I read a blog that demonstrated either something different than the player thought or insufficient (position, level, blinds/antes, player history, etc.) information to make a rational analysis, I'd be richer than Bill Gates.

I'd say examining how you could improve your own play is a better outcome than mere whining? What say you?

Merlin333


One last thing, poker is an game with a learning curve that is initially shallow but travels very deep. This means you can learnwhat seems to be a lot - practice it with some positive outcome and still not know jack about poker's intricacies. Now it's not brain surgery, but it's lot more complicated than it appears when you seem to be playing just fine after a few months. I'm reminded of my first "poker light bulb" moment. I had been playing for a couple months, had read nothing about poker (didn't even own a single poker book). Though I couldn't say why, I made a connection between the "early bettor" (UTG) and the fact he always had big cards and kept beating me. In my infinite "rookie stupid/wisdom" I thought the site was rigged or he was cheating somehow - then I got my 1st poker book (Tom McEvoys Holdem) and learned about position then voila' I started to learn the game. There are even more embarrassing epiphanies, but I learned instead of thinking I knew everything - to shut it and learn something. The more you really know about this game the less you blame poor performance on things other than your own play! Isn't that true of things other than poker?

p.s. I know this is a whining blog - what can I say - gimme a break ... lol