SMTL>Hammer?

I got all in with the identical flopped nuts on two tables at once -- Q9 in the hole and JT8 on the board. Got all the money in on the turn. Lost both on the river.

I had been ahead a little bit before that disaster. I was surprised to find that I was still ahead after it.

How is that possible? Where does all this money come from?

I think there are at least two answers: one is that practice and study are paying off, and the second is that I feel like I'm able to execute. I'm doing the right thing at the right time for the right reason, and not chickening out on risky plays that have a positive expectation.

Anyways, it's easy to talk big when I'm making money. Just watch me go on a bad run and start whining.

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I know this drives some people crazy, but I love knowing that the random number generator used to deal cards on some sites is based on things like mouse movements, thermal noise and timing of user input.

I picture as many as 52 possible outcomes (the number of cards in deck) changing by the millisecond based on hundreds or thousands of unseen inputs. It isn't like in a live casino, where it's easy to think that your bad beat was preordained by that river card lying in wait near the top of the deck.

Instead, all the cards are unmarked until the moment they are dealt. There are no cards, there is no meaning, until the moment they become visible. And only then do they become real.

There are no bad beats. That time I folded the best hand on the turn that would have been defeated by a flush on the river? On the Internet, I know the flush card might not have come if I had chosen to call. That time I got lucky and the board paired when I pushed my set into a straight? On the Internet, the board may not have paired if I had folded.

It doesn't matter. The only thing that's important is making the right choices for the right reasons with the cards you're dealt.

Any consequences are the product of a finite number of possibilities.

Here's a link from Lion Tales about poker sites' RNGs.