Quote Originally Posted by urobolus
But one itching question: is making a huge pile a good sign or a bad sign? I know it feels good to make it, but is a really big pile a sign of a consistent poker player? I've been sticking to my tight-aggressive strategy that Jones and you guys recommended, and I FEEL like I'm playing smarter poker (that book is SUCH a good guide) but...well, what do you think?
A huge pile says nothing good or bad. HOW you got that pile is what matters. Let's say the entire night you ended up getting called post-flop by flush draws. Odds say you'll lose 1 for every 2 you win. But if you have a lucky night, you could win 10 of those in a row and have taken down your entire table.

OR

You may have been limping in with any two cards and catching monster flops the entire time, busting out players left and right no matter what two cards they had. At the time, and probably shortly thereafter, this seems like a great way to play. In the long term though, you're losing money.

For example, let's say there are two identical copies of yourself that play for a year straight. Statistically, they'll both end up in the same spot, but how they got there may be totally different. One may have been busting out or tripling up almost every night, while the other just made slow consistent wins the entire time. You can't change the numbers that get rolled against you, all you can hope to do is get as many on your side as possible before they're rolled.