ITH Poker Forum

[ezplayer]

Hi Sunny, thanks for joining us here at ITH. I haven't read any of your books but I hear they're good so I'll try to pick one up. Here's my question:

Online, what's the lowest level that you've found really good (anonymous as opposed to professional) players? How many hands did you have to play with them to figure out they were strong (as opposed to rockish or ABC taggish etc.) and what kind of situations tipped you off?

[Sunny Mehta]

Hi ezplayer,

I'll say up front that I'm going to treat the phrase "really good players" in your question as though I'm answering completely speculatively and subjectively, because if we try to objectify that phrase we may come up with a different answer. I also have a fairly narrow scope of exposure to all the various sites and limits across the internet.

However, generally speaking, the highest level of play in a game like say $1-$2 NL 6-max on Full Tilt is currently WAY more advanced than probably ever before in that game's history. I'd imagine that's true for a lot of other online games as well. As for why I think the play is more advanced, it's a combination of everything that makes one a good no-limit player - proper use of aggression, hand reading, deception, bet sizing, etc.

-S

[Doc T River]

You mention proper use of aggression which makes me think of a player I know who suffers from an improper use of aggression. Other than playing a lot and being shown the errors of his ways that way, is there a book that explains proper use of aggression the best?

[Sunny Mehta]

hi doc,

To some degree aggression is a matter of style, but under any particular game conditions there is usually an acceptable lower and upper bound beyond which (in either direction) is -EV. As for books, I can't think of any off the top of my head that tackle aggression in detail, but we'll probably have much to say about it in PNL2.

[jeffnc]

One reason of course that all games are getting tougher is simple survival. With reloading getting to be more of a hassle, we're left with fewer losing players and more winning players to play against.