I am trying to make the move to PLO. I understand the increased variance. I understand sample size. Even at my advanced age, however, I wonder how anybody can make the transition when you NEVER win as a 65-35 favorite.
I do, however, understand how my opponents are enjoying the game as they get their money in bad and still win. What fun it must be for them.
The wife and I have been discussing luck all week. She survived her surgery, but has a hole in her stomach, which refuses to heal. Is luck survival? Is luck not needing the operation? Is luck no hole in her stomach?
How do we compare luck? Do we compare vis a vis those less fortunate or those more fortunate?
Mrs. JackDog and I agree. Where health is concerned, we compare against those less fortunate.
I may have a bad back, but I can walk... there are people in wheelchairs, people without legs.
This past winter, following the flu, then pneumonia, then a painful fall, I suffered a deep veinous thrombosis, basically a blood clot the length of my leg. After five days in the hospital and then many more days in my recliner, I was feeling a little miserable about feeling miserable for two months.
Why me, Lord??
I understand I am lucky to have not suffered a stroke. I understand I am 'lucky' to have health insurance. But...
My roommate in the hospital has been sick for most of the last 31 years. When he wasn't sick, he was in an auto accident or getting divorced or losing his job. Michael is 51-years-old and a wonderful man. Six weeks in the hospital this time, because his latest operation was botched. He weighs 113 lbs.
Later, I was at the doctor's office for blood monitoring and I met a 57-year-old man who's been sick for 10 years. He has two different forms of incurable cancer (currently in remission) and a host of other problems, the solution to one of which was castration.
Suddenly, I was feeling pretty good about myself. You might say, I was feeling rather lucky.
Where poker is concerned, however, we compare against more fortunate, don't we?
I may be a break-even player after years of serious dedication, but I haven't hit the big score or the long winning run or the bad beat jackpot or...?
We look at these kids just barely old enough to get into a casino winning pots the size of a new car. Or two. TV pros are winning prizes the size of a mansion. Or two.
Luckychewy has $127,000 in cash in his backpack, for chrissakes!!!
Every online poker community has its Bad Beat forum. Why are there no Suck Out forums? Because a Suck Out forum would be comparing us to the less fortunate. Rare is the poker player who looks at the unlucky and tells himself how fortunate he is by comparison.
I keep telling myself I am on the verge of a major breakthrough. If I can avoid drunk-tilt and depression-tilt, luck really won't much matter. Because I am so lucky compared to the 90% of poker players who don't win. Or even break even.
And I think we should start posting our Suck Outs.
Every mule thinks his load is the heaviest. - Abraham Lincoln