1) You learn more bluffing/hero-calling than folding
2) You learn more playing too many hands than playing too few hands
3) Your image gets you paid off/induces lots of mistakes from your opponent.

I'd be interested to know what others think?

If I was to coach someone who had an infinite bankroll and wouldn't quit when they lose I'd recommend playing hyper lag just because it's the best way to learn. Your mistakes are way more noticeable - you'd quickly see when firing the third barrel is bad because you'd remember how dumb you felt after you got snapped off every time.

Same thing goes with table selecting imo. poker is all about looking at the longterm instead of shortterm - sacrifice immediate ev for future (more useful) "learning" ev and you'll crush in a few years time. if you look at the very best nl 6max players (coopah, giev money) they all seem to play lag and all say that playing a ton is what helped their game the most. they also don't bumhunt

don't mean to hate, but this subject has been done to death.

i think of the red line stuff somewhat like i think of the bible. some ******* invented it, now everyone gives a massive **** about it for some reason, and it's kinda just a waste of time.

ok imagine I said loose-aggressive and didn't mention redline...do you think my logic is wrong?

i'm more or less on the same page, though i think some people take the idea too far. some guys think this way and as a result you often see them sitting at 6-max tables with five other regs. i don't think you're going to improve your game much more rapidly that way than by sitting a table w/ four other regs and a fish, and clearly the second hypothetical table is dramatically more profitable than the first one. on a similar note, it's not significantly more educational to play 30/25/nutjob than it is to play 26/21/seek-out-clearly-+EV-spots.

i agree that the guys who grind out rakeback playing 17/14/don't-bet-with-less-than-the-fifth-nuts are costing themselves, though, yeah.

http://www.pokertable ratings.com/merge-player-search/JohnnyPanic

what happens if u dont have any money left after a few years

that's not me but it's fine if you want to think it is

Seems fairly unlikely if you put in enough time working on your game and use proper bankroll management.

You can learn a lot by being a nit.

When you actually try to play nitty and "exploitable" you will see that your tight image makes players less likely to try to bluff you in many spots.

Simply put, this will make it easier for you to learn how to assign & narrow ranges down since there's less craziness involved in general. You won't have to worry about players adapting to your incessant plays, trying to trap you all the time, and all the leveling and game flow considerations.

You will also come to realize, in a very controlled fashion, which spots really suck even for nits, which will make you better at lagging it up.

I doubt.

I agree with this. I'd rather start out being a nit and bum hunt than being a LAG and play against the army of regulars. If you want you can always shift gears later and play a different style or open a new account(at a different site) and establish a new image. If you can find fish in today's games, it won't matter if you are a nit or LAG, they'll still consider you a worthy adversary.

However, you are talking about optimal playing style in general. In that context, being loose is a lot better than being tight for sure. I mean if I could not bum hunt, someone like me(a nit, for instance) would be forced to play looser until my money runs out(which is a scary thought). It is simply almost impossible to stay above even playing a nit style if you could not game select well in today's games.

I actually think that a player who masters every style, Rock/TAG/LAG/(may be even Maniac), while his or her stats look and seem somewhat sane, like between TAG and LAG probably has the most optimal style. That's what I notice when see so called big winners online. That style is almost a mystery imo, because it's always changing and I have a hard time figuring out what dictates the change; crowd, mood swing, or weather perhaps? It's the fact that they can shift gears and play a unpredictable yet a balanced style that makes them so successful. At least, that' my impression.

Maybe it depends on table configuration.

Playing nit gives you the unmatched experience of playing a completely "distorted" range of hands against an increasingly better pool of hand-readers.
OTOH, playing the red line is kind of over-discussed, and I think tannenj nailed it.

"No free lunch in playing style". There is no single style that is always the best. Picking the right style in the right conditions is a very valuable skill.

lolz you realize the nittier you play preflop the more likely you are to have a positive redline right?

^ that cannot be true.