Poker is a brutal game.  It can rip your heart out, when the 3 outer comes on the river and you are left broke. It can be devastating.

In truth poker is not fair, but it is also not unfair.  It is what it is, it is a math and psychological game. There are odds that you will win and there are odds you will lose.  The key is to play in such a manner that the odds of you winning are much greater then the odds you will lose.

Good players get sucked out on more then they suck out on others  because they are putting their money in good more times then they are putting it in bad.

Let’s not forget odds are odds, assuming you cannot make someone fold, there is a percentage of time every pre-flop hand and every hand on the flop can lose.

A guy a few years ago lost with Quad Aces to a straight flush. At the WSOP

We feel it’s not fair when we come out on the short end of the odds. We do not have the same sick feeling when we suck out.  For example, you get it all in preflop with KK and get cold decked by AA, but on the flop you hit the two outer to get the win, are sick about it?  My guess is no.  Do you remember it? My guess is not for long. Do you let it put you on tilt? Or do you tell people you played well?

Let us think about a cash game and one player gets lucky over and over again… does this make this player good? No.  It means they were on a card rush, we all go on card rushes, and the key is to note how they play and make the needed adjustments (card rushes end) or switch tables.

Poker is only unfair to the people that get beat, not to the winner.

Author: loser64

loser64 is a regular contributor to PokerSoup, you can find the rest of his rants about his path to micro-stakes stardom on his blog at loser64.blogspot.com.