Quote:
Originally Posted by Ganaram
Cunningham has always been one of my favorite players and I have been following him for years; I have noticed that at times he seemingly plays poorly in crucial situations.
I also think he can be compared to Hellmuth in that although his style of tourney play may not be "correct" compared to the present standard, he will stick to it loyally and consistently and therfore may come off as playing poorly.
Interestingly enough, 7 or 8 years ago his play seemed strange because he was ahead of his time and playing at a much higher level than most of his opponents.
7 or 8 years ago ahead of his time, or doing well against Gold years ago doesn't mean much. Tournament poker has changed so much over the years.
Eg. before 2000 people played for a pair of aces only, late 90s pros like Lederer and Gordon played loose from late position and tight from early position, a concept unknown to the rest of the field who didn't care much who played first or last preflop, they just assumed it was random, nobody realised it could give you an advantage.
Around 2000 Greenstein etc. continuation bet after the flop, revolutionary as at the time you'd check if you had nothing and bet if you had something. Checking if you had something on the flop was considered expert play, but betting when you missed the flop was something nobody had considered yet.
Then 2003-2005 people started understanding M values and that you played differently with 10-20bb or 20-30bb, earlier people would still set mine with 15bb.
Then you had the scandi years 2006-2008, with mindless aggression where everyone just folded whenever an aggressive shove made no sense. Nowadays it's range based poker, where you can't just randomly shove a backdoor flush as a scandinavian, smart opponents would figure those are only 15% of the range you'd play on the flop, and call down your bluffs.
So Cunningham crushing around 2004 before the aggro scandinavians doesn't mean much, anyone that thoroughly read harrington would be up to that level at least.