Losing Without Losing

Imagine you've just faced 14 kids and you beat them all. Now your on a bragging streak. You face the 15th kid and your trash talking him to nowhere. But when you start to play and your all fired up with your bragging insanity, you lose! All those wins and you end up losing. Don't think this is rare. It happens all the time. The fact that he lost isn't the bad thing, it's that fact that it hurt 2x as bad because he was putting on such an incredible show before the match even started.
   

Your probably wondering why this is called Losing without Losing, you'll find out. Do you wonder how that kid felt after he lost. Pretty darn bad. The reason this loss is worse than any other loss, is because the bragging dealt him in. I'm not saying that he lost because he bragged so much at the beginning, it's only because he faced someone better. This loss wouldn't have felt like a real loss if he hadn't bragged so much. I should know, I'm the kid that beat the bragger at the Pokemon league in MN.
   

The thing I'm trying to say here is NEVER EVER EVER brag before a TCG battle. Only afterwards if any. If you lose after you've bragged it feels awful, even worse if there's a crowd. What you should do instead of bragging is trash talk. But not to your opponent. To yourself. If you throw in lines like, " I'm just a beginner," Or," I'm not very good at this game" before a match, then winning will fell like a million bucks. Mainly because the opponent thinks he lost to a newbie. But if you lose after saying things like that, so what. You said it yourself your probably going to lose. If you tell them your probably going to lose and you do, no one cares. And if anyone does consider them a blackheart that cares only about winning.
  

So in the end, if you trash talk yourself before a match and lose, it won't feel like losing. It'll be like losing, without losing.