Are you still a winning player? Were you playing before Black Friday? I heard it was easier. I studied the game a lot these past few months and I barely break even. I'm only winning in live poker.
Not sure...there is a dearth of games now for US players and I was so disgusted with my money getting wrapped up in the Full Tilt BS that I went away from poker for about a year. I am certainly still a winning player at live poker, but the hourly rate can be a bit dismal and I don't enjoy it enough to do it everyday, or even once a week.
I would say that by 2008 the average live game was strong enough that I definitely had to practice disciplined game/seat selection, couldn't just sit down anywhere and expect my edge was higher than the rake.
I agree HU strategies advanced exponentially once stoxpoker and some other video sites came on and people started being heads-up specialists.
I'm hoping the US players can come back online soon. I'm not saying US players are bad but it can't be harder than playing Russians hyper-LAGs all day.
As the field narrows to just the devoted players, it will get harder.
Also, as the article suggests, poker strategies are advancing quickly. I started in 2004, and by 2012 I was still ahead of the curve, but the game had clearly gone light-years forward in terms of general strategy--in particular I'm speaking to HUSNGs, my game of choice.
