For those of us who have plenty of brag worthy experience with playing online poker, we know when we are beat. Everyone at the table can see the possibility of a flush with a tight player betting into a pot and your hand is three eights. You might as well be holding three blind mice.
And although most players know that three eights should be mucked in this scenario, a lot of players are going to keep playing a second rate hand though. It’s just simple psychology that we’d want to see what other people are holding. But players who are in it to win are the ones who will lay their hand down, and the players who are bad will be itching just to see what the other player has.
They make it to the river under the pretense that they won’t be bullied out of the game, but really they are just holding on for the sole purpose of seeing their opponent’s cards. Looking at this realistically, 3 out of 10 times a bad player will win so there is some reason to continue playing second rate hands when they’re beat.
Sometimes being dealt A-K is worse than being dealt 2-7 because at least you can be 100% certain that the 2-7 should be mucked while having a hand of A-K is tricky given that you’re tempted to play it no matter what.
When all is said and done, success rates are often determined by the way we choose to play second rate hands in a losing situation. I know it is completely satisfying knowing when an opponent is bluffing, but winning is better than stroking your curiosity. As the saying goes, curiosity killed the poker player.
