Daniel Negreanu's Latest Cardplayer Article

[SumZero]

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Why do you say it is possible that Johnny goes broke though? Why does he have to?

I just finished the article and in the middle it seems that Johnny knows something about setting aside a BR to take shots and will go down if he has to. However in the closing paragraphs you state that Larry may need to stake Johnny from time to time.

If you could explain this that would be great because I see nothing wrong with Johnny's more aggressive approach IF he leaves something aside to be rolled at lower levels if things go bad. However, there is no excuse for going broke other than a lack of discipline and an over-hyped ego.

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Well it is possible that Johnny doesn't always leave himself enough of a roll or move down fast enough. He might not even be wrong. If he is confident he can find Larry or someone else to stake him then his EV may be best to not move down as fast knowing that if he does go broke it just takes him a couple of months to win the bankroll for playing the lowest level rather than just moving to the lowest level directly.

Personally I find the toughest skill is being able to play your A game after moving to a lower game. I find it hard to concentrate and play my best game when playing a level that is like 5X less than the level I've gotten used to playing.

The thing that still isn't perfectly clear from DN article is why the top pros in the big game play in the big game against one another in the absence of a whale or donor. It could be because they want to improve their game and the article is saying they are right to do this. It could be because they are degenerate gamblers who have been lucky to have the best of it and/or been lucky so far in poker (like Doyle's quote), in which case they are probably wrong to do so. It could be because they haven't adequately learned their true limit like DN mentions in the article. It is probably a mix of all of the above.