I posted this in the Limit forum, but it applies everywhere:

Think of it as dues paying. Hands like that reward and reinforce poor play on the part of bad players. Psychologically winning this hand will stick in his mind - he held on and won a big pot.

So he'll hang onto those middle pairs a hundred times now, and lose 90 of them.

The reason Hold'em is so appealing to so many players is because poor play is so often rewarded. If it wasn't the smart players would all be clearing 50BB/100 for all of a week, then be out-nitting each other after all the weak players had been cleaned out. The profitability margin of good play is razor thin: 2BB/100 is great over the long-term. That's a good thing, because it keeps the fish interested and coming back for more, though it sucks when you pay your dues in the form of bad beats.