[phish]

[ QUOTE ]
Eugene,

If Barry G, Chau G. and Chip R. all told you that taking lessons from Tommy was a good investment, would you consider taking those lessons or would you ignore them because your normal limits are higher than Tommy's normal limits? The best coaches in most professional sports are not the best players in those sports. The best acting coaches are not the best actors. Why do you think poker should be any different?

BTW, having said all that, Tommy could school many players who successfully play at limits far higher than what Tommy normally plays. You can choose to believe that or not, but I have played many, many sessions with Tommy and know that for a fact. There's a lot more to poker than limits and $$$.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, but I doubt any of those guys would recommend Tommy's lessons.
There IS a lot more to poker than just strategy. For example, Barry Greenstein's book doesn't discuss strategies much (except for the NL Tournament stuff at the end), but it was still a very worthwhile read, because it stressed the importance of self-control: quitting when you're losing (and likely playing bad) which some guys can't do, and playing when they're stuck to really bleed them.

I'm assuming that this is the kind of stuff that Tommy teaches (avoiding tilt, game selection, etc). But frankly, this kind of stuff is either well known (game selection) or much more important at the highest limits where their edges are so small normally that continuing to play when one of the other world-class players is not in top form is very important.
But for most people who would buy Tommy's lessons, most of the games they'll play in are good already. What they really need are better strategy and hand reading skills, neither of which I think Tommy could teach well.
Plus, Greenstein's book costs $30, not $5K.

And to Tommy's original post: Here's a short-handed 20/40 game where the remaining players are tired and stuck and he's fresh, and he still doesn't think it's worth playing. Doesn't sound like he has much confidence in his own game.