Another Sun Tzu quote:
In all fighting, the direct method may be used for joining battle, but indirect methods will be needed in order to secure victory. In battle, there are not more than two methods of attack - the direct and the indirect; yet these two in combination give rise to an endless series of maneuvers. The direct and the indirect lead on to each other in turn. It is like moving in a circle - you never come to an end. Who can exhaust the possibilities of their combination?
- Sun Tzu -

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“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” (Sun Tzu)

In other words you want to harvest the pieces of jamies approach that worked while discarding the portions that didn't. The hard part is knowing which is which. And if you knew how to separate it then you wouldn't need to attend

I really should read the Art of War.

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- pls excuse my typos... I'm prob on my iPhone

Play online with me, check out my other blog: http://vookenmeister.blogspot.com

+1 to Vookenmeister! I just have a hard time thinking that anything but luck got him his bracelet. I've watched the televised portion of that Main Event and just can't help but think he is the biggest luck box ever. I know they only show a small amount of hands but what they did show displayed no skill IMO. Maybe I am wrong as I am not a pro, but good lord the deck just kept hitting him.

Sounds like you had fun and really thats all that matters. Clearly you have to hone your player reading skills at lower levels but that being said its really not that difficult. Most people at this level are very fishy one way or another. In my opinion if you want to be profitable at this level you need to know who is going to call off all thier chips, who will FOLD because their scared of Flushes and straights, and who will dump their chips to you on goofy plays that make no sense. Your image needs to match your most recent play. By that I mean if you just got caught with 2nd best NOW draggem to the deepend with the same play but have the goods. 90% of players at this level have very short memories and for the most part only play their cards. DONT try to get creative, trying to read physical tells is like being able to read palms at this level. YES you can pick up on some very normal tells, like looking at their chips, shaking, counting out chips to call before their turn, etc etc. But I think betting patterns will serve you better at this level. DONT give the fish more credit than they deserve they dont have the tools that you do so dont think they are pulling off some FLOAT Steal move on the river. and trying to use those moves on them will go right out the window because they are clueless. Play TAG and make them pay dearly.

Also I agree the donk should have been made to put the chips in he called off! However remember the floor loves both of you and your friends. They want your business and dont want you to have a bad exerience and tell your 10 friends to never play there. They split the differnce in most situations and try to make everyone happy.

Jamey Gold seminar really? LOL every dog has his day. If I were to book any type of training I would look at the WPT Academy, WSOP academy or Deepstack U with the Grinder and Matasou.

Shinds, agree that betting patterns are the most important thing. I don't think anyone would argue that. Tells can be very useful in those spots where information from a fundamental standpoint is pretty breakeven: like when you estimate a fold or a call is approximately break-even. If you have a little physical read on someone, even if it's just slightly statistically relevant, this can turn break-even spots into profitable spots.

And of course sometimes you'll play with super-obvious players whose tells will be so obvious and reliable that it will drastically sway your decisions from what you would have done with just fundamental knowledge.

I would never argue that tells are super-important in general. But against some opponents, and in some specific spots, they can really add to your bottom line. I always say that me personally, I think tells add somewhere between 10-20% to my winrate.