"I played perfect!"

I am sure you know these people. The ones that after a session or a tournament or liable to try and tell you they just played "Perfect". Uh, um, yea freaking right. Basically the best you could possibly do is play to your max potential or maybe try and reach the limit of your abilities. Not even Tom Dwan or Phil Ivey are capable of playing "Perfect". It is in the moment that they are telling me that I want to tell them the story about the two guys in the pool hall. One of them won and the other often lost. The winner knew how he played and kept his ego out of it. With this he was able to match up and get in gambling games he could win. The other was maybe a little better but cocky. So cocky that he thought he was better than he actually was, always ran up hill while gambling, and to often did not get the money. About the only way to make money at pool is to know how you play. If you think you are better than you are you will always get in games over your head and it will be very hard to win. But if you know what to expect out of yourself and have a realistic image of how you play, then you can get in games and win. Not only is this knowledge of how you play helpful when it comes to the matching up but more importantly if you ever want to improve you will need to know what to work on. Only by having a realistic idea of how you play will you be able to take the necessary steps to improve.
Here is a couple examples on how this relates to poker. Simply put if you don't understand your weaknesses you're liable to get in tough games or not notice when they are tough. You are liable to play on to long when the game may not be very profitable. You may play to many games and not have ever tried to learn enough about them. And very importantly if you already think you play perfect, then what room do you have to improve? I think it is very important to know how you play so you will know what to be working on and what steps you need to take to keep progressing in an ever evolving game. That's why most people mistakes are ones that they do not know they are making. They probably do not know that some of their plays are a mistake. A lot of people might not be giving this enough thought and should realize the only way to improve at poker is to work on your game, talk poker with friends, and maybe take some lessons.

No ego, no emotion, just poker! Long live poker! Good luck all!