September 26 - The poker landscape has changed dramatically in the past few years as many excellent reference books have appeared giving all players who can read (not everyone, obviously) a fundamental understanding of the game, especially Hold'em.
One of those much-repeated saws is that Hold'em takes a short time to learn but a lifetime to master. I'm here to say that this statement is a fallacy because it presumes that Hold'em can be mastered. This is simply not the case - past a certain point all players possess the same level of skill. In cash games the difference between the winners and the losers is money management, and in tournaments it simply comes down to pure luck.
You may disagree with me but you're kidding yourself if you do and incorrect. There are many situations in a tournament where the players involved in a hand play the hand perfectly only to get knocked out. These things happen in tournament poker, and ultimately reduce those contests to games of chance.
Now, I am saying that a certain level of skill is important - if you don't know the basics you will get smoked in a big-money poker tournament, but beyond reading Sklansky and Harrington we're all pretty much the same.
This is why the same "great" player hardly ever reappears at more than a couple of the big final tables in the same year. If two quality players in the world faced each other heads-up 10 times I'd bet that it finishes 5-5 or at worst 6-4 in favor of one.
When it comes to cash games it is all about money management. You can be the best player in the world and still get crushed in a $1/$2 limit game. Or you can put an idiot in a $1000/$2000 limit game and see him (or her) end up a winner in a session. But over time and a significant number of hands the better players will win in cash games while the poor players get eaten up, assuming that everyone who participates has limited bankrolls. The relationship between your bankroll and the size of the game is the crucial aspect of cash poker.
The important point here is that no one masters Hold'em because it cannot be mastered past a certain point of proficiency which multiple players can obtain.
