Micon, thank you for your concern. However, I am sure you can appreciate every time you play a hand of poker you might win or lose. In this case (actually in several cases) I put up small stakes to see what would happen. In the same way, I might go to a movie and at the end I may have received my money's worth, but I don't get my money back.
In re. bold text: Although true, that doesn't mean that poker is a 50/50 proposition. Remember, poker is a NOT a card game played with people. It's a people game played with cards. A Grand Master Poker Player (if such an animal exists) would never have to look at his/her cards to beat the game, albeit he/she may have to pretend to look at their cards unless, again, he/she has such a read on a player that he/she may somehow point out that in some particular hand(s) he/she is playing blindly.
My last foray in RL poker, I started to play this way on occasion, especially when I had an excellent read on an opponent, coupled with position and chip count, and didn't want to see a 2-7 off-suit in the hole, thus possibly giving away information.
Believe it or not, when playing online poker, a GMPP can do the same thing with the adding advantage that not a single player would be aware that he/she is not looking at their hole cards.
The reason for coming to this thread is because I'm recently become fond of the name Ryan.
~Bruno~
