[midnightpulp]

Good post. Your ideas highlight the fact that poker is essentially a game about people. I think we sometimes too easily reduce an opponent to hand ranges and forget to play the player. However, against a good player I think sometimes a certain point is reached when there is no longer a "correct" play.

What I'm talking about is multi-level thinking (I know that you know that I know, ad infintium), and you reach the point where you make a certain play and hope it's right. For example, your opponent knows your marginal hand can't stand any more heat on that board. You know he knows this and he knows you know this. What is he trying to do? Bluff you? Or manipulate you into calling? How are you supposed to figure out the right play in such a convoluted situation?

Since I've been playing poker, I've always wondered what separates the good players from the great players. I truly believe a solid, experienced small/mid stakes player is just as "theoretically" good as a great high-stakes player.

But in the real world, why does one player ascend through limits, while the other, who has ambitions to play higher and works just as hard on his game, just can't seem to beat the next level?

I think this where the qualitive aspects of poker, like BR management, tilt-control (two things that have kept me stuck in 1-2, 2-4 limbo), game selection, knowledge of your opponent's psychological tendancies, become more important.

Two players come to mind: Jen Harman and Phil Ivey. I'm making an assumption, but I doubt they spend 1/10 of the time studying their game away from the table as your average 2+2 poobah mid-stakes poster. This is not a knock on their work ethic or the inherent talent of the 2+2er. I'm just wondering why this is?

How can Phil Ivey hold his own online with Brian Townsend, who is arguably the most fundamentally sound NL player around, when NLHE is not even Ivey's best game? If you approached Ivey and asked what his BB/100 is, you probably get in return that blank stare he's so famous for.

And Jen Harman. She's admitted to not knowing some of the math behind the game, yet she's one of the best LHE players in the world.

I know I've digressed, but what I'm trying to show is that when you play against other good players, knowing your opponent, the person behind the HUD stats, becomes much more crucial.