[bigpooch]

He may not have picked up a hand; he may not have had an
opportunity to steal the blinds and he may not have had a
chance to steal a pot. Sometimes the game is pretty boring
if you seldom step out of line! The only way anyone would
know is if they saw all of his hole cards during the play,
and only David would know. Also, once his stack size gets
quite small, if he never picks up a hand, he is correct in
letting his chips dwindle to nothing; something I think many
players don't even know about!

I think I would do the same thing if I never picked up a
hand, there were no short stacks to pick on or there were
no pots up for grabs. Also, many players don't even have a
clue how to play: they often play much too loose and then in
some spots they play much too tight. In games that are
played locally, players play ridiculously so badly, tight
aggressive play is even more amply rewarded! I wasn't at
the table to witness Sklansky's play at the table, but I'll
bet that he made what he thought was the best EV decision
almost every time taking into account the players involved.

Okay, I'll be the first to admit that I don't look for tells
all the time in B&M and I don't smooth talk the really big
fish so they are willing to play heads up with me. Maybe
I should take the same approach as a friend of mine "The
Kid" who quite easilty puts half the table on tilt with his
mannerisms and wonderful comments. That's not the kind of
person I am but I believe it is the most profitable approach
currently with all those fish swimming at the tables! But
I seem to remember the Kid did take a punch in one of the
back rooms.....hmmmm!

On the other hand, the very best players can get inside a
player's head and not only read their hands but their
thoughts (a simple example is Helmuth's last article in
Card Player). The best players simply excel in the areas of
psychology and card reading. If anyone has played with some
opponents for any length of time, you know exactly what I
mean! That's really poker, knowing your opponents and
getting to know how they think (which is at times so
ridiculous I won't even go into details!). Also, even some
of the more successful players aren't going to share their
thoughts to even let you in on any secrets of their success.
You seem to get that sort of impression from the Ciaffone
books, don't you?

Online, it is still quite easy (for some of the better
players) to read the exact hands of some of the players!
You can even ask some of my friends how ridiculously easy it
is in a game like holdem what a player could have in his
hand. There are only two cards to read; even in draw poker,
the range of hands can't be that wide in some situations and
it's quite easy to decipher what opponents are doing. Where
the real money is: PL and NL (and tournaments) where some
players can't think up to a certain level. Sure, many of
them can read hands and situations but not many can think
about what an opponent's thoughts are about what you are
thinking! For those that reach that level of thinking, it
will be more than adequate against any opposition and then
playing poker isn't even a fair gamble!

The unfortunate temptation with online play is that the
better players will just play a lot of tables with so many
fish to carve up! Most of the better players will play at
least three tables and that is not to say that they will
triple their hourly rate as compared to one table, but even
2x or 2.5x is very good! A few days ago, being the sicko
I am (as one friend put it!), I took a shot at seven tables
(including two five-handed and one four handed game) and
although it's not impossible, it is very demanding and I am
quite sure that less than 1% of the online players could do
this successfully for more than 15 minutes (about the amount
of time I tried it!). This is a little harder than making
the top 20 on any Lucy Jones bonus on Partypoker! By the
way, when I was making the top 20 there, I hate to admit it,
but I was merely playing my normal number of tables: five.

We were fortunate to have picked up a game like chess where
some analytical abilities were rewarded, but obviously, they
are not as handsomely as rewarded as in a game like poker!
It seems also quite clear with the economy and markets
turning around and the WPT and a $40 to seven figure parlay,
this year (2003) will be a watershed year for the big growth
of poker online and worldwide. Sure, poker isn't nearly as
interesting as chess or backgammon, but there's a lot of
money out there for the better players to take.

But I will consider a change in handle names to BIG FISH or
maybe BIG FISH 'N LOTSA CHIPS (maybe too long for some of
these sites?). I like to think that bigpooch = big pile of
others' chips! How does the fish part fit in? :-)