Originally I wanted to use a different title for this blog entry, but I decided to change my mind because it would have given the false one sided impression for it and this entry is by far more open minded that you would have thought on first glance based on the other title. I will implement the youtube video at the end though that has given me the inspiration to write about this topic.
Quite often we complain about beats and the final result of a hand and use all possible swear words to describe how bad an opponent played the hand, the most popular one is probably “donk” … yes in poker it’s not the f word, it’s the d word! But is this really always the case or do we just see this from our own perspective and the fact that we play to win and hate to lose?
Well, let’s see it from a slightly different perspective … the following statements and explanations will be ironic, but this does have a specific purpose and I would recommend reading carefully until the end. Otherwise you will probably just draw your conclusions about this blog based on this sarcastic approach to explain the sense behind so called “donk moves”.
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“Any Ace will do”
Why shall I fold to a raise and big reraise if I got an Ace on my hand, I mean I can still hit nut quads, right? Also, many like to reraise with a high Pocket Pair there and when I hit my Ace I am golden … so just get em in preflop, the kicker doesn’t matter!
“Any Two all in”
They are just too scared to play against a maniac like me and will fold anyways, I might even get pocket Jacks to fold in this spot … I mean the all in button would feel so bored and lonely if you don’t use it from time to time, right?
“I got a pair, I can’t fold”
My hand just looks so uber good, I don’t care that my opponent already raised preflop … I got a pair and can still hit quads on turn and river. Also, there might be 3 over cards but who said that he hit … he could have raised with AK and we all know that AK barely wins. The same applies for top pair as well, no matter what kicker and how scary the board is … we just have to call!
“But it was suited”
I know that you got a strong hand but I know I will hit my flush … and if you got a high pocket pair my chances to hit the flush are by far higher because you need 4 cards to hit the flush and me just 3, gotcha!
“Hey, I had two flush draws”
Well I know you are on a draw but I also have 2 flushdraws and can’t really fold … you raised strong preflop but there are 3 spades on the flop and my 2s might be golden, just because you raised you don’t necessarily have the Ace of spade to dominate me.
“Oh Anna, you look so beautiful”
AK is the best drawing hand that you can get preflop and you can hit the nut straight, so why should you ever fold? Also, you will almost always have outs or a coinflip, even against Aces you can hit a set of Kings, right? It just looks so nice, I am so in love with you and don’t want to let you go.
“It’s my fav hand”
I won my biggest pot ever with those cards, no way I can fold … I mean I had so much luck with them already so why shall it not happen again? I cracked Aces so often … I mean cmon, you also call all the time with your fav hand as well, don’t you? No matter how big the raise it or how many draws are out there on the board. It’s my fav hand !!!
“Your raise was not big enough”
If you raise 25 more, I could have folded … but you gave me 0.26:1 odds and I just had to call, it would have been totally different with 0.25:1 odds! And the blinds were not that high, I can still win those chips back later on even if I don’t win this hand.
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A lot of you might have laughed when reading the statements above, but are they really that funny or have we been guilty of that before as well? Nobody is perfect and we all make mistakes … been there, done that. But if we would really be perfect, we would be nobody, right? And I prefer to be somebody, even if that means that I do make mistakes from time to time. We shall not be ashamed of making mistakes, but we should be open minded to learn from our mistakes and don’t make the same again in the future.
But who actually said that everything always has to be results orientated? If that was the case many would have already had to stop playing poker. The vast majority of all poker players are losing in the long run, if we would all be that great and successful, there has to be a forum full of donks that always just lose and we are somewhat special, huh?
One of the biggest leaks and part of our nature is that we always tend to see ourselves better than we are and try to blame others for our bad luck or lack of success. This might sometimes be the case and no matter how good we play, sometimes it’s just not meant to be and our opponent played better than us. But we shall not forget to check the other side of the coin as well and look into the mirror from time to time.
We can’t always blame others when we don’t blame ourselves and analyze our own game and try to find potential leaks. We don’t play every hand perfectly, most of the time we just don’t notice how badly we play because we don’t pay attention to every little detail. Our human memory is determined for failure because we just can’t remember everything … and our ego is telling us that we are better than others. But how can we reasonably blame others and expect their respect when we don’t even question ourselves day by day?
Bad beats will always be a part of the game and the best starting hand doesn’t always win, but is it really just bad luck or also bad play? You have to work on your game all the time and try to gain more knowledge, because standing still is the first step to failure. Sometimes the attitude towards the way the hand was played from you is just as bad as the suck out on the river.
It is a consistent fight to learn more about this complex card game and maybe build up an edge over your opponents. And why do we complain about those bad players? Should we not appreciate them and the fact that they commit their chips on a worse hand than us? As long as we focus on our own game as well and try to get in ahead or with a reasonable chance to win – sometimes you need to rely on your gut feeling.
We have no reason to complain because this will be profitable in the long run ...you just need the stamina to keep the spirit up and don’t let the short time failure tear you apart and ruin everything that you have built up so far. Because how else did you get this far, was it just pure luck?
Last but not least the youtube video that I promised at the beginning … it’s called “Put a donk on it”:
Thanks for your attention.
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