knowing the difference

i hear it at almost every table i play. 'good catch' or 'nice hand'. some one loses on these 'good catches' and 'nice hands'. do we remember what a good play is and a bad beat is anymore?

how many times have you played AQ suited aggressively in position and some WSP wanna be calls you with 25 os and flops the straight? some guy at the table says 'nice hand'. and you just burn up a little inside. this wasnt a nice hand at all!! it was a bad play that caught. that person is a bad player not gus hanson!. gus hanson knows the odds to every hand he plays and believe me he knows what his chances are every hand. the guy playing 25 os took a chance and go lucky. but he is still a bad player.

now take a guy playing A2 suited in the small blind. he is allowed to limp in and the flop comes 345 of the same suit. he of course bets aggressive and has 2 callers. in his mind hes going nuts!! hes thinking $$$$$. almost impossible to lose. next card is another A and he throws big again. still 2 callers. the last card is the 6 of the same suit!! ALL-IN!!! both call!!! your boucing in your chair at home!! this 'IS' the hand you are looking for all night!! you turn over your A2 and wait to see the other 2 hands. player 2 turns over a full boat A's over 5's. this is a bad beat in my book for the guy holding the full boat. the next guy turns over K7 of the SAME SUIT YOU HAVE!!!! he has the higher straight flush!! HE WINS!!!!! this has to be almost the most heart wrenching bad beat out there. one of at least. all good hands. all played it right. and the guy with the worst starting hand wins.

the second example is a truely bad beat! i dont know if the players are bad or not but the hand was played decent.

in the end a bad player may win a couple hands. maybe a table sng or 2. but in the short run, unless he improves his game he will lose a lot of money. a solid steady player will win more than lose 9 out of 10 times.

good luck at the tables. see you there.

This is also a good title for another difference that i believe should be clarified if I may.

Clarification of the true definition of the poker term "River Rat"

In the last week ive had 3 people screamin from the observer chat how I was an F-in River Rat and the hand was BS. Sorry to break it to you folks, but if someone is shortstacked and makes a decision to go all-in before the flop and you call with for example K-10suited because as chip leader this is a fair hand at a cheap price to try to move the game along.....it does not make you a river rat cause you happened to make a flush on the river beating pocket aces.

First off, the hand is out of player control once the call is made and the chip leader on most occasions would assume hed lost once he saw the aces anyway. Catchin the hand and eliminating the short stack for only a few chips from his stack is just bad luck for the short stack and reasonable and practical play in a tournement since the aces were an unknown variable. Just because a hand is made on the river does not make you a river rat....chasing a hand with nothing and catching it on the river is the definition of a river rat there is a big difference because in the second situation you are making a choice knowing the odds are not in your favor on nothing but praire and lack of fully functioning grey matter, in my opinion of course=)