what does it take to be a great player?

[CardSharpCook]

[ QUOTE ]
Well i am a solid player...but solid plays don't make you money. You may finish in the money, but your alwaystoo short stacked to get into the final table for big bucks. when your short blinds are big your AA has no value unless u get lucky

[/ QUOTE ]

You're right, stick to donkey calls. That's how all the great ones do it.

[nath]

[ QUOTE ]
Well i am a solid player...but solid plays don't make you money. You may finish in the money, but your alwaystoo short stacked to get into the final table for big bucks. when your short blinds are big your AA has no value unless u get lucky

[/ QUOTE ]

This is true. You definitely have to get creative during MTTs if you want to get anywhere. However, "creative" does not include things like "calling all-in with 44 with two players all-in in front of you." (Perhaps if your stack was awesomely deep and you wanted to knock two people out with low risk to your stack / establish yourself as the crazy "I've got chips and I will call your all-ins with all sorts of stuff" player.)
I digress. Being creative in MTTs DOES include looking for situations to steal blinds / antes, taking favorable gambles, playing aggressively so as to pressure an opponent with a marginal hand, etc. A certain willingness to gamble is absolutely necessary, and being aggressive with those gambles, in the right spots, is crucial.

[RFJ]

That's the problem a lot of weaker players push all in with 22 33 and how can u call with JJ. Then you kick yourself because you had the best hand. Let me tell you it's not fun when people river straights or some odd hands win against your AA...but hey they doubled up with loose plays and have the opportunity to take you out. If i get out i'm out..for the other guy he has a stack to play.

[RFJ]

you want to outplay your opponents but when you get people pushing all in against you with weak hands..not one but two or three..what can i do? that's how i lose a lot of times.

[Pulplife]

Just curious where you play, and at what buy-in. This sounds a lot like a $3R. If your example of two to three players going all-in with low pairs and speculative hands is during a re-buy period, that is a different story.

Whether it is a rebuy or not, make notes on the maniacs and open up your range of calling hands against them. They may suck out on you, but as a previous poster said, you have to be aggressive when you have an edge.

For example, I would easily fold AJ to an all-in early in a tournament...but if there is a player that is constantly pushing all-in with mediocre hands, I may call with AJ (especially during the rebuy period against a maniac).

Bottom line is, if you have a good read on a player and you feel that you are ahead, play aggressively. Don't let the donkeys scare you into folding the best hand (ie, folding your JJ).

[JJJ88]

[ QUOTE ]
You need luck to win tournies, but calling two allins with fours isnt the way to do it. Pushing all in with fours, getting two callers and spiking a set is a different story. I hope you understand the difference...

[/ QUOTE ]

Well said.

[davidross]

THis is just wrong.

FWIW, I don't think you can decide to be a great player, great players are born, not made. Thye have to work at it,but thsy have some undefinable skill that goes beyond what the average or better than average player can do.

But to say solid plays don't make you money clearly indicates your lack or experience or understanding. I am a pretty good cash player, and a so-so tournament player who is very conservative. I won 70K in 7 days last week. I have won 2 tournaments with over 1,000 participants, and I can tell you that I wouldn't be considered great by even the widest definition of the word.

If you have it in you to be great it will come out, but if you continue to make good decisions and get your money in with the best of it, eventually the stars will line up correctly and you'll have a break through.

[TakenItEasy]

There are no shortcuts in this game. You may think that a solid player is good hand selection and standard raises PF but that is just scratching the surface.

You see a Gus Hansen semingly raising with random cards or Daniel Negreanu hitting back door flushes. Before I understood the game to the extent that I do now, I thought they were playing bad. There is quite a bit that they bring to the table that you and I don't see that enables them to succeed with this style.

The underlying reasoning for this style of play allows for a huge variance. High variance will often get you knocked out early but also gives you a better chance to get ahead of a large field. The talents they bring to the table reduces the low side of those swings and increases the high side. This is not to say that this is the only style, in fact their's is probably the most difficult style to learn. Howard Lederer or Dan Harrington will bring a much more analytical style that will tend towards a slow and steady increase in stacks. I believe these styles are much more "learnable" than the Gus or Daniel style.

Now to become a good, not great, player which I consider I am with several multiple $K wins and dozens of final tables on-line. Study these topics, not in any particular order:

Pot odds, Implied odds, starting hands, standard bets, +/-EV, logical reads, timming tells, physical tells, false tells, pattern plays, opponents table image, establishing your table image, playing off of your table image, player selection for bluffing, bluffing ratio, reducing the field, etc.

Playing Style: tight play, loose play, aggressive play, passive play, weak play, understanding the strength's and weaknesses of every combination of style both preflop and postflop.

Types of plays such as: semi-bluff, Stop-n-Go, limp raise, continuance bet, check-raise, shutting out the field, blind stealing, defending blinds, traps, trap sensing, etc.

Tournament theory including: early play, middle play, bubble play, Final table play, short handed play, shortstack play, bully play, blind structure, payout schedule, etc. Know all the inflection points and how to change gears accordingly, understand variance verses blind sizes, and variance verses stack sizes

Now tie all of these ideas into multiple game plans since many of them will not work well together and others will work great together.

Of course I am sure I'm overlooking many things. I'm also sure that a great player would say that I'm just scratching the surface.

[MagicMan08]

It takes balls, hot women, lots of money, oh and some brains. - Plus what TakenItEasy said.

[Ben Therre]

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Of course I am sure I'm overlooking many things. I'm also sure that a great player would say that I'm just scratching the surface.

[/ QUOTE ]


Your just scratching the surface.
GL