You’ll all be happy to hear that I’m two-out-of-three so far on my new year’s resolutions:

1. Okay, so I haven’t gone to the gym at all so far this week. But it’s been open shorter hours, and will be back to regular days on Monday, so I’ll start going then. Yeah.

2. Tobacco: It’s been a rough week, but I’ve done alright!

3. I’m a little ahead of target here. I had a good week at the ring games.

And now a word on the dreaded “suck-outs”, “bad beats” and “awful players” that are so in fashion to complain about:

Why do you NOT want your opponent to make stupid chases and bad decisions? You think you’d fare better at a table with only world class pros, because they would “respect” your raises? Let me tell you, I don’t WANT my raises to be respected. I want to get called, re-raised! Rarely do I want my opponent to fold. If you’re rooting for your opponent to fold all the time, chances are you’re bluffing a bit too much, or you’re playing marginal hands.

This topic has come up in a few threads over the last few days, but I want to stress it here, too: When your opponents make bad decisions, you win. Maybe not every hand, but in long run. Cherish the players who plays A-rag against your pocket kings, and chases to the river to catch that ace. Sure, once in awhile they’ll catch it, and it’ll sting. All the other times, you’re taking their money. Of course, you don’t realize this, since they won’t actually call your river bet with A-rag, and therefore you can’t as easily keep score of the times that your hand holds up. I bet that adds to the feeling that the chasers “always” hit.

Always look on the bright side of life!
*whistles*

/FP