[Deffeh]

i watched all 12 heats of the party poker tournament, the semis, and the final

it just confirmed my "its luck" theory. Many of the players were very similarly skilled. As soon as you "get" poker, theres nothing between you and your opponent but luck, bottle, and the position of the button. True, a lot of it is in how you represent whatever, etc etc, but very often it doesnt work.

For example, when Dave "the Devilfish" Ulliot went out of the tournament to an Internet qualifier (!), he complained "these damn internet players dont play properly, what was he thinking calling me there (the final hand) ?" And i sat and thought, what, because he played on face value, and didnt call your bluff, and didnt buy into you having a good hand like a supposedly "better" player would have?

I saw straights come out on the turn and river, i saw A/K lose to A/8, KK lose to 77, etc etc. There was no justice for large parts of the tournament. If youd had offered the KK vs 77 guy the pockets and flop he would have said "thanks a lot!", and suckered the 77 boy in, but he still lost. Sometimes it was possible to tell a good player apart from a bad one, but in the end, the only thing that seperated them out was luck. (Lee Nelson, the winner, apparently came last in like a 72 man in australia 2 week previous or something).