Quote:
Originally Posted by JayKon
That sir, is a combination of denial and deflection. This stopped being about your initial post a while ago. Besides, I don't recall you posting that you called with second pair. Besides, that would be called a "bluff catcher" and is a completely legitimate play.
You have a lot of anger and self-control issues and don't seem to want to admit very much of it.
It's not only calling with second pair, that was just an example. Other examples would be calling with top pair medium kicker and even top pair top kicker, the lower end of a straight, three pair or a straight with three to a flush facing up, a straight or a flush when the board pairs. And examples could continue, but what difference does it make since the concept is the same?
As Harrington said in that quote, when pots gets larger the player needs to slow down and go through the way the hand had unveiled itself, analyze the betting and make an informed decision about his next move. I get excited by the tension of the pot getting larger and instead of slowing down I play faster and make mistakes, failing to fully utilize the knowledge acquired by studying the game. These mistakes add up in time, and result in one of the leaks that, if successfully plugged, would allow me to exceed the novice player level.
That is the problem I'm working on and I'm not complacent about it, I'm not crying about it, and I'm not blaming others for it.
And if you lived up to a certain age and didn't realize by now that admitting your shortcomings, not only in poker but in any area of your life, is a sign of strength and not weakness, I don't know what else to tell you.
If you are interested in discussing things like anger management, psychological instability, or reasons to join Marines, you could simply start your own threads and look for people who share the same interest. There is no shame in doing that, and, besides, you are not fooling anyone by projecting your own issues on others.
PS: Any hand above Ace high could be used as a bluff catcher, but you need strong evidence from the betting pattern and/or other tells that there is a likelihood of a bluff in progress in order to utilize it for that purpose, which highlights once again the importance of slowing down and analyzing everything that went on in the hand, when the pot gets larger.