[Note: I'm posting this in the SnG forum, since that's what I usually play and where I mostly post]

Earlier today, I was playing in a MTT which was down from 150 to about 40 players. I had been hovering around 2000 chips, up a bit, down a bit, but not hitting any premium hands or flops. By this point, the average stack was around 5000, BB was at 300, soon to go up, so clearly I would have to make a move. Anyway, to make a long (very boring) story short(er), I wound up calling all-in with middle pair on a flop and getting knocked out.

Afterwards, I was reviewing my play, and it occurred to me that this was, in a nutshell, the difference between good and great poker. Not my play on that last hand--it sucked--but my overall play had been good previous to that. I had stayed in the tournament by making good steals, bluffing, and getting away from dubious hands. But that one lapse knocked me out of the game. If I'd laid it down, who knows? I might have made the FT. Doubtful, but definitely possible.

The point is, playing good poker is easy. By good poker, I mean, good mechanical poker. Knowing pot odds, understanding implied odds, fold equity, etc., and playing accordingly. Good poker can be taught to a ten year-old. What's hard is playing good poker consistently. And that's what great poker is, really. The ability to always play good poker, to never suffer the little mental lapses that cause you to go ahead and call that extremely fishy $300 value bet with TPMK. Those lapses are usually caused by boredom, fatigue, wishful thinking, or a combination thereof. Great players--and I would include anyone able to make a decent living at poker in this category--have the self-discipline and mental stamina to not make these mistakes.

Anyway, maybe this isn't too revelatory or groundbreaking, but it was an important personal realization in my goal of maybe someday making real money playing this game.