I have long argued that any new player wishing to make themselves into a winning poker player as quickly as possible simply has to specialise on one game and one game only. Otherwise you just end up being a jack of all trades master of none. I still believe this to be true but the goalposts have shifted somewhat in online play.
Getting one game cracked is still the way to go for any novice player but a serious full time player or semi pro seriously has to contemplate playing other forms of poker now in my opinion if they play above certain levels. The problem with playing at higher levels is that you tend to be playing better players. The legislation in the United States in the back end of 2006 stopped many new players from coming into the game.
But those new players were playing at the lower levels which many full time players dont play at. The players higher up are not only better but they are using Poker Tracker more and more. This piece of software is making players more money initially but I think that this piece of software could endanger online poker.
This is why I never divulge where I play until recently when I started with Pokerheaven. I think that it is vitally important these days for serious players to not only diversify where they play but to also play numerous forms of poker. When you have players letting PT datamine for hour after hour without them even playing then where is all this going to lead? I think that it will get more and more important for good players at the higher levels to at least try and make themselves as invisible as possible and these means not giving your serious opponents enough data to get an angle on you.
All this does not stop at PT or other equivalent tracking software users either. Many players share information now either through forums or by numerous other sources and any player who has ambitions to play online poker above certain levels is terribly vulnerable when it comes to players sharing information. Dont get me wrong, I am not crying foul here. The sharing of data is not illegal or improper when done away from the table but it is still making the games tougher to beat.
I have been asked countless times to divulge my screen names and where I play but there is no chance of this and at the levels that I play at then this could represent serious losses over the space of a year. By spreading where I play and what poker forms, it is very difficult for anyone to pin me down and it will stay that way.
The Dean is sponsored by Pokerheaven and can be seen at www.pokerheaven.com/thedean.html
