Post deleted by Mat Sklansky

[einbert]

What separates losing players from breakeven players is the ability to make these "easy" decisions correctly. What separates breakeven players from winning players is the ability to make some somewhat tougher decisions correctly. What separates the great players from the winning players is the ability to make the toughest decisions correctly, and consistently nail the somewhat tough decisions.

You can definitely beat small stakes online just by making all the easy decisions correctly, but the higher you go the more that just won't cut it. At every level you have to have a greater proficiency to be good enough to break even.

[MagicMan08]

I find your question hard to answer, but that main point is trying to keep all of your decisions as easy as possible by doing what you have said, but there are so many variables.

[RiverDood]

[ QUOTE ]
How far do you think you can go if you have the easy decisions part of the game down cold?

[/ QUOTE ]

Until you start running into better players.

It's amazing to me how variable this is. There are $5/10 games (or $30 SNGs) in the B&M/home game world and occasionally even online, where if you can play ABC poker, you will stack up other players' chips until your arms hurt. There are much smaller games with jarringly high standards of play.

Maybe table selection should be treated as its own special skill!

Also, mid-stakes poker doesn't have many people with the discipline to master the easy stuff before splashing around with more complex concepts. Instead, it's is riddled with the equivalent of math students who all are taking a shot at calculus before they can reliably handle fractions. And as much fun as it is to mock them, some of these strivers almost have solid games. They just need to plug a couple ugly leaks involving basic stuff.

I think any effort to develop a players' hierarchy has to take this into account.