FEEL, GUT INSTINCT, AND TELLS

you have to remember that most of the pro hands you see are at late stages of tourneys and the one in question when two players know each others poker game very very well.

Put doyle in a 10$ game (if he could be bothered to take it remotely seriously) with strangers and he would be playing a very very different game.

At a new table most of it will be almost entirely about the cards. Only once reads develop or the stakes/ blinds get high that other factors become major considerations.

Take billyboy - one of our more successful tourney players. You will hardly ever see him playing trash and I would say 90% of his preflop decisions are ENTIRELY about the cards and situational factors i.e. raises before him etc (sorry for using you as an example billy) and quite right too. Only once the field is sliming down and deep reads develop does the mind game become more important than the holdings and even then having the right cards is still crucial.

Whilst winning with trash is good for the ego it is dangerous to play this way.

In terms of crapshoots stats having seen crapshoot play I am not remotely surprised by this.

An aggressive player will often only get called by strong hands. You have aks on ak10 and go all in someone will call with aa, kk, 1010, j10, etc and whilst aq etc might well call often when you get action here you will be beat. Similarly with 228 if there has been much preflop action crap is precisely the type of player who will often win this hand because he has lots of guts. But if someone calls they will often have trip 2's here. 8as would appear strong on this hand, as would high pockets but both will lose to someone who makes a strange call to a big bet with 2x.

Myself i lose and win on all hands but all you will normally see me losing on 24os etc is my blinds.