[sweetjazz]

[ QUOTE ]
Right now, any 2+2er who focuses exclusively on improving their game and does not concern themselves with the play of others will improve at a rate far faster than their opponents.

[/ QUOTE ]

Can you clarify what you mean here? Surely you don't mean that it is not (vitally!) important to observe the tendencies of how others are playing. Are you just saying not to worry whether the quality of the opposition is improving, because you can still stay ahead of the ball by studying and analyzing your own play?

I think there is a lot of merit to that, and it is the way that poker should be approached. I think the concerns about the games getting tougher should not have people getting their panties in a wad and that if you continue to play then you should take the approach that Gabe suggests. However, as games get a bit tougher over time, there will always be players who continuously see their edge slip down and eventually it will reach a danger zone where the edge is small enough that they are at the whims and mercies of the variance gods. It's important that any player be able to assess where on this scale they are, setting their ego aside. For the top players, they are in no danger any time soon. For others though, now might be the time to start working on beating tougher (tighter) games.

In some sense, I think Josh and Gabe are saying the same thing: keep working on improving your game to stay ahead of the competition, which is still very beatable. For 99% of mid/high players (myself included), our next step is a game that seems tough to us now but is, ultimately, very beatable. If you don't work to improve, you won't move up in limits and you will lose gradually see your edge at your current limit decrease. If you continue to work to improve your game, you can move up in limits and also increase your edge over your opponents, even though they are improving as a whole (but at a slower rate than you can if you work hard).