The Greats

The three things that separate great poker players from the merely good players:
1) Ability to filter the important from the trivial.
2) Understanding how other players perceive them (their table image) and how that influences their actions.
3) Most interesting to me, and possibly most important, is the ability to reassess the progress of a hand immediately upon the presentation of new information. This may sound kind of, "well duh," if you don't play poker. But if you do, you'll understand how rare and useful this skill is. Almost all players fall prey to a sort of anchoring heuristic, wherein their initial assessment of hand strength (whether it be their own, their opponent's, or both) greatly influences how they continue to view the hand even as more info is presented. A very simplified example: I am dealt AdAh. I think, ooh, nice, let's get as much money into the pot as possible. Flop comes JsTs9c. I think, hmm, kinda scary flop, but I have aces. I wanted to get all the money in. We'd better get it in!

Great players seem to be able to shake free of this almost entirely. The great player is able to objectively re-evaluate a hand at each decision point. Sometimes he ends up with a complete 180 degree change in his assessment. I love to listen to the thought process of players this good--it is remarkable how unbiased they can remain in their analysis throughout the hand.

Final truism of the day: There is no better poker training than listening to a great player talk through his thought process.