Variance, just another way of saying you are going to lose

Variance is a fancy way that gamblers explain the ups and downs of their bankrolls. Unfortunately, no matter how well you play, you still have to rely that the odds of the cards will hold up and your hand will win the percent of times it is supposed to win. This is probably the most frustrating thing about poker playing. Losing game after game to people that have made mistakes, from minor mistakes to catastrophic mistakes only to be bailed out by dumb luck, or maybe it is lady luck.

I have played a lot of SNGs the past week and I have never quite had a spell like I am having right now where no matter how well I play I am still coming up short. I can be a 97% favorite and the person will hit the two perfect cards that they need to beat me. It would be so bad, but it probably has happened 10 times, that scenario anyway. The others are not so devestating. They call them races. That is where you have maybe a 55/45 advantage in the hand or 60/40 type hands. You have the high card but no pair against your opponent. It is very annoying losing race after race as they hit card after card in an endless string of defeats when you had the best hand. What is really frustrating is when you are behind and hit the card you need, but they end up hitting a set on the flop so you are basically drawing dead.

What has got to be my favorite though is where they hit the miracle two outer on the river to beat my hand. You can't let it get to you, but as human beings we have a hard time accepting things out of our control. Where is the fairness we say. How can this happen over and over and over? Supposedly, it will all even out, so the secret is to keep playing and playing and striving to eliminate all errors and mistakes from our game so that we can cut down on the bad odds against us.

One nice thing though is relishing in the bad beats we put on others, because we can feel their pain and know they are loving it when they suck out on you. So when you beat someone with 72 and they have Aces or Jacks enjoy the moment for all it is worth.