I read a good article once which demonstrated that in a sample hand played by a beginner, a mediocre player, a good player and an excellent player, the beginner and the pro both made the same play (the winning one) and the mediocre and good players both made the losing play. This isn't, of course, because the good player was playing like a fish or the beginner got lucky - it was to do with the levels on which they think - but it did point out the innate paradox of poker, which is that bad play and good play can be one and the same. The thing is, though, it usually isn't, and certainly at micro MTTs you won't be getting anyone thinking on the 3rd or 4th levels.

Quote Originally Posted by Thunder
when you see a villain play 37o as keenly as KK, it can be quite hard - and dangerous on a 37Q flop - hence this thread.
Of course this happens - we've all seen it, and most probably have all done it. But actually it's only a small minority of players (shrinking to a TINY minority once you get up to the low-mid stakes) who do this, and identifying them is not only vital, but almost always extremely easy. In MTTs, of course, if 37o busts you then there's not a lot you can do about it in the short term, but thinking long term, as you have to do in all forms of the game, you'll know next time you come up against a guy like this he's far more likely to stack off to you than the other way round.

As Tai says, a huge proportion of poker is ABC, and not being able to play ABC poker pretty much automatically means you'll never be able to develop the judgment you'll need for situations where you need to go beyond the automatic. My father once pointed out to me that the reason people like Picasso or Kandinsky or Pollock could create great art that was nothing like traditional art was because they had a perfect understanding, built through study, appreciation and practice, of what the fundamentals of classical art were - poker is the same.