Wasting a Poker Hand-Reading

It's almost a standard play in poker—we need to place our opponent on a hand. This means we have to have a good poker hand-reading of our opponent. But this should not end there, however.

Most good poker players are also good hand-readers. Sometimes they could actually pinpoint to the last detail what the opponent's hand is and what winning hand it can lead to. But the fact is also that most losing players are also good hand-readers—and also have pin-point accuracy of what their opponent's hand and intentions are. Yet, they frequently lose.

This is mainly due to their inability to act properly on the information they have. They have a good idea of what the opponent's hand is, they know what to do, but they seldom actually do what they should do. It seems winning to them is just to get an accurate reading on their opponent's hand. When they're able to do that, they feel great and elated. The game to them is getting a poker hand-reading and then confirming that in the end.

For instance, we are dealt really bad cards. Then luck changes and we find ourselves holding pocket aces. A player raises us and we decide to re-raise. The player calls. The flop shows 962. The player decides to bet and we raise—which the player calls. In fact, the player decides to call all throughout since. It seems like this player knows much about us and knows what he's doing. Must be a strong player.

At the end of the game, at showdown, we find out that the player actually has a suited A9 and two outs. Then the player goes like, "I've always known that you had a pair of aces." That's a familiar statement said at the end of the game by players sharp in poker hand-reading. They knew we had this and that, yet we wonder why they still lost.

The most surprising part is that we find out about their poor hands. Why did the player not just fold if the player knew all along about our pocket aces? A lot of poker players just sharpen their reading skills but never put them into real good use. This is a lot of waste.

Well, perhaps, lots of times, such claims at poker hand-reading is just a way of saving face after a humiliating loss. They see how foolish the loss has been, especially when they should've just folded, then claim greatness in poker hand-reading.