According to Google Images, this large man is the Chicago Bears' emo kid QB... I call shennanigans
Except Cutler decides to throw two interceptions, one of which was in the red zone. And then Matt Forte decides it will be a whole barrel full of laughs to fumble the ball not once, but twice on consecutive plays in the end zone. All in all, the Bears should have had 3 more touchdowns than they actually did, easily been within 4.5 points of Atlanta and they wouldn't have cost me my entire sports book balance. What is more gutting is that thanks to my own, personal rules, I can't reload it until next month. Gah!
I meant this Jay Cutler all along. I think Google Images had one of it's moments earlier...
As you can tell, I'm a bit of a sore loser when it comes to certain things. But at the end of the day, it is called gambling for a reason. I'm not an expert, I do it recreationally. I never bet on teams I support as heart clouds the judgement, and sometimes do it to add a bit of excitement to games I'm not all that otherwise interested in.
My philosophy is much the same in poker. Every poker player knows the pain and anguish of a bad beat. Whether you have the nuts pre-flop or even going into the river, only to have that one bloody card you did not want to see pop out and give the hand to someone else, it sucks. There is no other way for it. Whether you have to see yourself walking away from a tournament table or paw longingly at where your large stack at a cash table used to be, it just is not fun. But it is poker. The reason the other player as a 5% chance is because, 5 times out of every 100 that you are in that situation, it will go the other way.
This is why I absolutely have bad losers at poker. They are far more prevalent on the interweb than in real life casinos, as real life casinos tend to kick people out if they act like douche bags. They are the people who, if they get beaten from behind, go on and on about it for ages. It may be that I'm neither a semi-pro player nor someone who has aspirations of going pro. I enjoy the game. If I'm having a good run I'll play more, if I'm not I'll stop for a week or two. This is nicely summed up by my SharkScope stats, as after 230 tournaments at the site I use I'm exactly up $3.
However, some people are awful losers. Point in case, on Saturday afternoon I was watching some sport on the telly and playing poker online, a favourite combination of pastimes. I was playing a $5 single table sit and go, which means 10 players each pay $5 plus a little bit that goes to the company and the top 3 get paid winnings, with a top prize of $25. Not exactly world series of poker style, near $10m first place prize cash pools here. There was one guy who was getting very shaken at the table and I thought may be on tilt, meaning he may be making bad decisions. He had raised big pre flop and I thought it was a desperation bet, so I went all in with one of my favourite hands – an ace and a nine of the same suit. He called and had an Ace and a Jack meaning that I was absolutely dominated about 70/30. Needless to say, I hit a 9 and won the hand. He then spent the remainder of the tournament (which I won, go me!) berating me via the little chat box.
I've never got this mentality. Yes, it sucks to lose when you are ahead. It sucks to be a football team that throws away a 2-0 lead. It sucks to be an NFL team that throws away a 3 score advantage. It sucks to be a cricket team that looses a lot of wickets in quick succession. But c'est la vie. It happens. Be the bigger man, tell someone they got lucky (believe me, they will know they got lucky) and fight another day.
For the record, the worst beat I've ever seen was against my mate, and fellow soon to be Ball Soup writer, McGoo. Someone he was up against needed two 5s in a row to win a big hand. He got them. I will allow swearing in situations like that...
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