Quote:
Originally Posted by theginger45
I don't think its a question of titles, I think it's about the way he plays. Anyone with a modicum of poker experience knows titles don't equal ability, but pretty much every time he's on TV or in the public eye he just seems to make a bunch of mistakes. Not just non-standard plays, but obvious mistakes. If he made just one final table where he hung around playing unspectacular ABC poker for a while, it'd do his reputation a lot of good.
I understand what you're saying and kind of agree in part. However, I think part of his success has to be attributed to him being very hard to play against because he doesn't play ABC poker which confuses his opponents (HU against Ivey I think he got Ivey to make a couple of rare mistakes because he couldn't work out what line AF was taking - it could be argued that AF doesn't even know what line he's taking sometimes and maybe he doesn't).
I think his image probably helps him get paid off in spots early and that has helped get him deep in tourneys where he's no doubt run good also. Whether it's by design or just luck is arguable, but I think he's definitley smart enough to understand his image and how to use that to his advantage despite making some "technical" mistakes that we don't usually see from the pros.