Surely it's losing. It's not winning, and it's not a tie. What else could it be?

Folding. Just to clarify, I'm talking specifically about folding before putting any money (beside the ante or blinds) into the pot. I wasn't clear enough with that in my previous post.

I'll clarify a bit too. You get dealt two cards. When it's your turn, you play them. Maybe you fold, maybe you raise, whichever way you make a decision and play.

If you win every hand you play, you can't fold. If you fold then you played a hand and didn't win.

How's that?

In the poker communities I've played with (and I'm by no means an expert), folding before putting any money in the pot would not be considered "playing" a hand (especially if you didn't pay a blind -- but even if you did).

It's not playing at all.

Folding a hand is not playing it? I would define any action (fold, call, bet, raise) as a play. You would almost certainly define folding on the river as a play, why not folding preflop?

Because there's no loss or no gain when you fold preflop and you don't even see cards, so it's more like abstaining completely? I don't know, I see your point though, the metaphor was stretched a bit far.