[thehotspur]

The short answer I would give to your question is that yes they do possess something that others cannot acquire - their personality. They don't have a different brain chemistry that makes them figure out things more quickly than everyone else in the world.

Poker expertise, like chess, requires intelligence but not incredible intelligence. It's more a particular combination of personality characteristics, some good, some kind of bad.
They must be incredibly driven, almost monomaniacal in their devotion to whatever it is they do, in this case online poker.

They must be very aggressive naturally, this means that they don't have to force themselves to destroy people at their tables, it is pleasurable to them because the desire to dominate others egoistically is a fundamental part of their psyche.

They must be ridiculously confidant and self assured almost to the point of delusion. They must have an inner need to gamble and gamble big. And crucially they must have all these extreme characteristcs but yet not be an emotional person who lets things bother them. I wouldn't go as far as to say that they must therefore be sociopaths, but you wouldn't be going far wrong in looking in that direction for at least some insight into some of them.

This list of coincidences of personality characteristics is fairly long so it is no surprise that there are not all that many people who have them and happen to have taken up online poker. But the point I am making is that their play and success is a function of who they are, and they are fortunate that it is ideal for the game of poker.

Anyone else imitating aggressive styles but actually kind of struggling deep down because they are not really a bully, or things do actually get to them emotionally, or they are not fundamentally someone who would want to bet all they have on the turn of a card is always going to be that bit less of a player. You can shift a bit strategy wise away from your natural character, but ultimately when it comes to the crunch who you are will come out.

If you are not the above kind of person then you will never be the kind of player these guys are, but is that so bad? Would you ever really want the "gamble" of Stuey Ungar if that meant the poker ability that went along with it?

And anyway as a psychologist who has spent a lot of time doing researching and profiling Internet poker players I can tell you that many many of them are clinically addicted to playing online, and it's harder to quit the more money you're taking in!
Good luck with your poker.