An observation and a reminder

[Heaven]

First off, I recommend everyone that haven't read Gigabet's thread "Almost There With Success and Failure" to stronlgy do so since this thread is somewhat like that, but I have a few things to add to the posters in this forum that I have observed lately. I hope this makes sense to you all and is in no way any critique to any of the posters I mention, I just use them as examples. Btw, my whole post is mainly supposed to be used postflop but is of course also to be used preflop in what people may think is tough situations.

I have no idea how this will be seen upon.

Gigabet is mentioning that the best way of learning is to just watch and study every hand you are involved with, ever! That is the best advice anyone can ever give you as a poker player. So what am I really trying to say with this thread? I am saying that I don't even think 50% of you here do that (the number is probably alot higher). Alot of the posters I have seen here seem to play automatically and not even playing the player at all except for the basics, like, "he is tight and now he is betting, guess my TPTK ain't good, I better fold"). While that works in some way you all can do so much better. Why can't he have TPGK? What does he put you on? What is your image to him? Do he know you at all? There is so much more than the basic reads (I don't even want to call them basic reads, more like,,, stone age reads) and if you want to improve from an average player to a good player or even a shark you can't play your hand, not even once. Your hand is only one part of the whole hand and in the end it's not even that important since in MTT's, how many hands truely reaches showdown? Exactly. Play your opponent, your hand only matters when facing an all in or if someone is potcommitting themselves.

I see alot of players here reaching FT pretty often. One player I have to give credit to is Gobboboy. I have been watching him alot lately trying to pick up a few things from him and he made really outstanding calls and raises that he of course wins at. So what have I observed at Gobboboy that the average player don't do? He plays the player and I bet you, that he is pretty damn sure he knows when he got him and therefor makes an outstanding call. Without ever talking to Gobboboy on AIM or what kind of IM he use I am sure he atleast have a few (more than 2-3 reasons) to why he plays like he did, while the average player think (he is tight, he is loose, I got TP, etc...) You see my point yet? Don't it ever get to the point where your hand matters more than 25% of how you play. The reason to why I pick 25% is that I try to have atleast 3 good reasons before calling/raising and if it's still a big meh, my hand matters. Let's also put position and other importans aspect's into this, so let's say the "Other" takes, 10%. So that leaves a whole 65% to nothing but your reads and observations.

I only have one example. Unknown player to me but he brings up questions that makes me go, uh-oh. Alot of the hands mentioned is pretty easy and straightforward if you know your opponents. This hand "It gets folded to the SB who bets 3,5bb and I am in the BB with Ax. Should I fold?" made me question myself. How would he play it if it was J7o? or 46s? Probably folding but is that ever correct here? More often than not, it's not correct to fold here! Unless you have a huge pile on information on your opponent telling you otherwise. Remember, only 25% of your decision should be made up on your hand.

Now, I only took the example of one unknown person to me, but I am so sure this applies to ton's of players that makes it far it tournaments from time to time and consider themselves to be good players. I have some friends that are good players that makes it far somewhat frequently but they always ask me what to do and they have been at the table for alot of time without any reads and thoughts for how to play the hand more than what their holding is. Meh.

So to conclude it all, what I am trying to say is, alot of you players out there can be the very best of the poker elite but you have to stop playing on a level 1 basis. I think of level 1 basis like I have said earlier.

*Reading players by stone-age reads
*Playing your cards way to much.

And to be brutally honest, ALOT of you are still here even if you make it far from time to time. Just imagine how long you would go if you can play J7o like you play AA because you know how your opponent plays and when you are beaten. It's so much better and will get you so much further and so much more often. However, if you can't do the 2 basics things we learn when first starting playing poker (1# playing your hand and 2# playing in position) this don't really apply to you just yet. In the end, it all comes down to, the better you recognize the situation the easier it will be for you, so we are back at Gigabets thread again and the study every hand you ever see thing. Just some observations I have seen and a reminder to those of you reading gigabets thread and yet not applying any of it.

Comments? Thoughts?

/Heaven