starting hands requirements seem a bit low for dn

[Brownbeard 0]

Everyone has an opinion and I'm sure a very select few of us DO play poker at a very high level. Just like in any sport, there's always new competitors rising through the ranks that may someday play on the grandest of stages and even overtake today's heroes.There's no question that Daniel likes to play a lot of hands. That has served him well in the past. Doyle Brunson used to bluff at so many pots he would make Mike Matusow look tight. Nowadays, by his own admission, he's had no choice but to tighten up.Daniel has had a lot of TV exposure and many players have seen him bluffing more than they would otherwise realize. This will affect how they play against him in the future and how they are playing against him now. He may do better by showing the goods more often.I've read in the blogs of at least a couple of times where Daniel has gone all-in on the flop with an open-ended straight draw and, consequently, gotten knocked out of the tournament. I like the idea of bluffing with outs but this is a potentially disastrous move if the players at your table have lost respect for your bets and are calling you with a single pair (and sometimes not even top pair). If players are calling you with nothing, then you need to have something better than them when you bet.Daniel has also lied about his cards after hands on more than one occassion to make it look like he had better cards than what he actually had. This has also been exposed on TV.Specifically, I think there may have been a couple of times Daniel lost with K-9. This is a notorious trouble hand that Doyle recommends not playing in Super System II. The other hands Daniel mentioned in this forum speak for themself. Yes, he can play them. But they're not big hands.

[dalecooper 0]

Good poker isn't all about starting hand requirements. In fact the idea of starting hand REQUIREMENTS, in a loose cash game with lots of tricky players, is a ridiculous notion. If you're sitting around waiting for Hellmuth's top ten, you're going to get owned by the Farhas and Negreanus at the table. They'll steal your blinds and your weak bets, and when you finally get those aces they're all going to call your raise with 75 suited and pocket twos, and somebody's going to ruin you.I find that players who worry all the time about starting hands are often the same players who get married to those beautiful aces and kings, and can't let go even when they're beat. They fire both barrels with an unimproved AK against somebody who obviously isn't going away. They don't get post-flop play, they don't understand the push and pull of the game, they don't make reads... but by god, they have starting hand requirements that will at least help them lose money more slowly than the truly awful players out there.Yesterday I put a guy all in with A6 off in a cash game after he re-raised me pre-flop. Why? 'cause I had a lock read on him. He was mine. A6 is a POS starting hand but it was the best hand against this guy, and that's all that mattered. If I'd had worse - say a suited face card and a little card - I might have just called and used my position to beat him, instead of the brute power of the High Card. Whatever it takes. You gotta play poker, not your cards. Most hands don't "play themselves"... and you won't get enough hands that play themselves to keep your head above water, especially in a good game.

[76clubs 0]

It's called talent, my friend. Daniel's got it, we don't

[halis 0]

Here's what I know about No Limit, and it's relevant as to what you "should" start with. When I first started playing STT's on Doylesroom, where you start with T2000 and the blinds @ 20/40. I remember a hand where I had AA in the very first round, and I had seen some pretty wild calls in past games, so I raised it up T500 when the blinds were 20 and 40. 25% of the starting chips mind you, for them and me. Of course, I got two callers. The flop came 3 3 4 (rainbow), I moved all-in, 1 fold, 1 call. The guy had 53o. I look back and laugh at the way I played. My reasoning was: If I raise to where they can only get 4 to 1 on their call (even through implied odds) they can never beat Aces, no matter what. Was my thinking right? Well, mathematically, pretty much, but that didn't really help when he showed the 53 for all my chips!I remember I watched the rest of the Sit N Go to see if the guy was cheating, and for a while I thought he was! He was taking down people left and right with just garbage hands. But then I realized what he was doing, I realized that No-Limit is just a game of implied odds, and how calling raises gave you so much power!All you need is the one or two cards, at that right time, and you're going to bust someone. I'm sitting here thinking: Well the guy can't have a 3 because I raised before the flop, and what did he call a raise with? A G**DAMN 3!!!The other guy who called the raise was T1500, he nursed his wounds, won a few pots and was back up to T1800 in no time. That's gambling.That hand definitely changed the way I thought about NL forever. You just HAVE to be the guy that has the cards that no one wants you to have.Anyway, take what I say with a grain of salt, it's just one guy's point-of-view.

[Azwethinkweiz 0]

Givin the situation, the high stakes, the enviornment of being something new, and finally the level of play potentially at this table, regardless that Daniel lost, I feel he played some of the best poker in quite sometime.It's been said already and been beaten to death, but it still needs to be in a neon sign, quit thinking because you played a decent game, and have read a couple books that you have the game figured out. the cliche' "a second to learn and a lifetime to master"Daniel's game was completely sound. Aside from the river cards, it took people like Doyle flopping a fullhouse to take a chink of his armor. I feel his play took all of the pressure of himself(compared to the rest), and put plain and simple, if they were going to beat him they were going to have to bring it. If all of you in cash games are just sitting back playing AA, AK, and pairs, I'd love to come to your game.

[Fanatikk 0]

When he starts folding pocket Ace's preflop, I'll start worrying about his game.