Playing poker is always about winning. A good player does everything he can in order to maximize his winnings and minimize his loss.
The only problem is that sometimes your skills might not be enough. You also need a little luck with your hands. When the luck doesn’t help, what makes a good poker player is his ability of losing the least possible. A great player knows when he can continue playing a hand and when it’s time to fold it.
What you have to do is realize when a hand is worth playing and especially when it’s better for you to accept your defeat and get out of that game. It can’t be easy giving up after waiting for at least an hour for a good hand; still this may be your less costly decision. A current mistake, made by nearly all novice players is to play too many hands, due to their inability of waiting for the really strong hands to show up.
If you show patience and moderation and your opponents get to see that you are the kind of player that knows when it’s best to fold, you increase your credibility in front of them. This will make all your deceptive strategies work as by miracle. But if they figure out you are hasty and rush into foolish decisions, then you are dead meat!
You don’t have to be ashamed by folding: it is only normal for a professional player to try and minimize the loss.
