Playin well and losing or playin crap yet winning?

[woodsy44]

I was reading through a poker article (not online), and it was about playin well -concentration, alertness etc. The guy who wrote it was saying "If you played the hand well, even if you lost, it is a victory. If a hand is played badly, then that is a defeat, even if the pot is won."
If you had been playin on poker tables up until the early hours of the morning, Would you want to walk away a winner even if you had played crap and got lucky. Or, would you rather have played well and knowing this, but going home with a huge loss over your head.
I agree with this, but to be honest i would rather go home with my pockets full knowin I had played crap than playin well n losing. Just wondering what some other poker players thought of this, and what position you would want to be in when going home after a long night of poker.
I hope this isnt thought of as a silly question. Its 5am at the mo and it seems to make sense to me now.

:stupido2:

 

[xdmanx007]

Well of course you would rather have the loot! The main problem with getting lucky is your brain thinks that is the best way to play so bad play gets reinforced. Although I would take a huge pay day by getting lucky any day!:thrasher:

 

[diabloblanco]

Well, from my perspective, my bankroll can handle the swings of a losing session or several for that matter. While the money is always a plus, your suppose to be able to handle swings and keep on playing with the knowledge that as long as you keep playing solid, no mistakes poker you will book far more wins than losses. Conversely, if you play poorly and book a winning session, you can be sure that continued poor play will take back those winnings and then some. I would have to say take the flawless play and the losing session rather than the shitty play and the win. Your bankroll should be perfectly fine in the short term and rewarded in the long term.

 

[t1riel]

Do people even care if they played badly or not if they won? I would want to walk away a winner even if I had played crap and got lucky. If someone you know heard that you won, they would think you played great!

 

[diabloblanco]

It doesn't matter what people think. It matters whether or not you truly are a good poker player. If you really are a good player then the small downswing or cold deck won't hurt you. You can still play mistake free and feel OK, like you did your best. You will eventually warm the cards back up and win your losses back plus more. However, if you allow things like cold decks to tilt you so that you play poorly or make calls you wouldn't normally make you're going to pay a price for it. You may come out a winner in the short run, but over time instead of winning like in the first scenario, you will dump those short term winnings back onto the felt and then some. So, like I said previously, anytime I can play a session free from or almost free from mistakes, I am happy. Even if that session finds me down some, because I know the most crucial part of poker is playing free from mistakes. Continuing to do so will win me my money back soon enough.

 

[HoldemChamp]

I would just like to know why so many people seem to get away with playing badly. But, I just can never get away with it.

I was at a ring table on CD poker the other day. Too, my right was and idiot. He called to see the flop every hand. He must have won about 1/3 of the hands and was ahead like 40x the BB. To my left was a player doing almost the same thing. Maybe seeing 75% of the hands. He won about the same amont. 40x the BB.

The played maybe a few good hands the entire $1 hour I was there. The rest of the hands they played were absolute trash. Calling UTG with k4 of j9.

I ended the hour ahead about 1.5x the BB. I only made a few mistakes and that is all I got for playing the way I should. I got the same trash they did. I folded like I should and my trash rarely would have won. Yet their trash won 1/3 of the time.

I just don't understand. How long is the long run. It seems to me only the idiots get paid off.

 

[diabloblanco]

When I say long run, I am refering to a very long period of time or a large sample size, over 50 or 60K hands for the numbers to really break even.

If those players were willing to see a flop that many times, it stands to reason that they will win more pots as long as their post flop play is fairly decent. Think about how mant times a flop completely misses you with your A-Ks, but hits the asshole UTG perfect who limped in and called your raise from LP with K-7o. It sucks because you had position and he shouldn't have called anyway because he was out of position and had a shitty hand, but he called and was willing to pay the price of your raise
to see the flop. During any one session you'll see flops constantly that would go perfect with hands like 3s-9c, 10-Ks, 5-7s, and every other hand you would never play imagineable. At low limits its easy for a player to fall in the trap of "well, this is only costing me .50 cents to see every flop, so what the hell, ill probably pick up more pots that way," and it works sometimes, especially playing micro-stakes LHE, because even when you tighten up and only play those premium starting hands and the flop hits you just right, you can't push all-in and bust them out.

Honestly, you don't reallly escape the "No Foldem Holdem" crowd until about 5/10, sometimes some 3/6 will be tight enough, but then you run the risk of sitting down in a rock garden. At 1/2 and 2/4 you may not have the same guy doing this every hand like you saw your last session, but you can almost gaurantee that at least one player on every hand will be in the pot with some junk you are just amazed that they even played. Like with any obsticle, you have to stick to your style of play (as long as it is proven to be successful) and not let anyone elses actions alter your game, and eventually those flops rewarding the K-7 and J-9 will fall to your premium hands and you'll get paid off.

 

[robwhufc]

There were probably another couple of people in game playing equally badly who were haemorrhaging money (well there must have been - the other 2's winnings must have come from somewhere).

I also see this all the time and it's the most frustrating thing in poker. You know if you hit a good hand you'll hopefully win a huge pot, yet you never get a decent hand (and when you do you never get anything on the flop). Like you, after a while i think "if you cant beat them join them" and you end up losing money twice as fast.

I would hope next time those 2 sit down they will lose their winnings and more. It'll just be to someone else.

 

[TheBigBoss]

I prefer the both. To play very well and go home with full pokets. but if playing the best bring sadnes to me pokets I will change the strategy and still will go home very happy

 

[poettic1]

your going to loose, alot! but good poker players playing there game will over come. put it this way would you rather loose because you played a great game and got tore up in the no foldem holdem feild, or succumb to their lvl and still loose. the second one seems alot wore to me, because i sacraficed my integrity.
ef that play your game.

it took the "professor " howard leaderer two years to get his game to beat the low limits. now hes rich. no comprimise in integrity.

everyone likes being up in money but, the ones who take the money here aren't poker players, but posers who switch hit to poker when the game is good, like those who said they liked boston since the stone age.

i'm not saying play the same style forever, but dont switch it to where your uncomfortable.