just like many of you..i watch my favorites on tv too..daniel and phil ivey...tell me i'm wrong when i say..daniel just isnt aggressive enough lately..too many of his hands go all the way (too the river)..i'd like too see him take some pots early on and be uber aggressive..would it hurt..

always a fan and god bless

I think that- with the WSOP at least, since it was so early in the tournament- Daniel was choosing to err on the side of caution rather than recklessness. After all, you can't win on the first day (or now, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth day) but you can most definitely go broke on the first day.

Why would you be aggresive agianst people who want to gamble?

Im not sure where your watching from but just another point if your watching him on TV, blind steals and everyone folding after a flop isn't great TV compared to all-ins which are primarily shown on televised poker then filled up with usually the biggest pots are.

When I'm playing my best, I play "small ball," meaning, I don't take silly risks and chop away at small pots. It's an aggressive style, but it's controlled...

Especially in the early stages of the World Series, where survival is paramount...

You don't want to go crazy preflop pushing marginal edges, or get caught overplaying one pair or a draw. You want to get paid pushing with nuts and making weak players call you... and Sammy Farha only makes things far more difficult.

I thought both Farha and Daniel came across as very intelligent and pleasant (if not sharkish) tablemates.

My favorite hand of Daniel's TV presence:

Daniel looks around inquisitively with AhQh on the button, and decides that even though he's that short he HAS to raise this...

No-name huckle moves in after limping in EP... Daniel overreacts for a reaction ("aah! He treyapped me!)"... quotes Rounders... and asks the guy:

-"You settin' a trap over there with AK?" (the most probable hand he'd have that we'd be waaaaay behind to instead of racing, which we'd take at this point) "You got something good?"

-"Hey, it's the World Series..."

Daniel briefly rolls his eyes because that means absolutely NOTHING from an unknown

-"Well what does THAT mean?"

Daniel mulls it over, value calls, and gets excited when he sees he's dominating a noob right now...

Hit's a queen...

2nd club hits the turn and Daniel CLAMPS shut for fear of getting runner runner'ed on TV in the biggest World Series EVER after getting reamed like his WHOLE MONTH has been going...

And then gracious and courteous in victory, and sadly, later defeat.

I learned a lot from it.

That summarizies my MTT tournament strategies (I only play online and in $5-$10 tourney's, which probably isn't comparable), but I find this strategy really only gets me into good position for the first 1/2 of the tourney (I'll often find myself top 5% of the field with 3/5 of the players gone), and once the blinds start escalating and people get desperate this strategy just falls apart. I seem to be able to finish in the low end of the money with this strategy, and not much else.

Ditto...I've taken down a few $5 tourneys will 600 ppl of so, but mostly I wind up cashing out in the last 3 tables. Getting over the hump of 'all in or fold' strategy at that point has proven to be tough.

Farthest I've gone in one of the $200 Sunday tourneys (UB) was 16th, and I got lucky and sucked out on a few confrontations.

It is about shifting up a gear. Just before the blind increase starts to get a bit big for the rest of the table, start appyling pressure to the table. TRy and gather chips before this and keep hold of them.

When the blinds go up, start stealing antes. The whole point of accumulating chips early on is to put fear into your opponents when you start hammering away at the blinds. Also, pay attention to the small and large stacks. These are the ones you want to avoid confrontations with. If they are yet to act, reconsider raising with a marginal hand, knowing that a large stack is apt to gamble with you, while a small stack is likely to make a stand.

Don't limp into pots once the antes kick in (or if you do, only do so a very small percentage of the time). What will happen more often than not is that you will limp in, and someone will raise you out. Don't give anything away easily. If you limp with a medium strength hand, you are giving cards away easily. If you can't stand a raise, you are giving chips away easily.