I just want to give a shout out to my boy crabclaws for the nice article he wrote. well done.

additionally, can you elaborate on how you'd play the AA regarding early, middle, late and FT tournament play? Any changes in strategy on or near the bubble?

thank you for the article...good read on a continuously difficult hand to extract maximum $$ on.

I liked it a lot too. There's a fine line between extracting value and still protecting your hand in deep-stack situations. It's easy to play AA overly greedy (min-raising, small bets, letting people catch up because you're scared of them folding) or overly cautious (betting too much, scared of people catching up). Crab's got some good ideas about finding the middle ground.

WP.

As for the first question, I look for any kind of predictable play when targeting players. While I always prefer to play big pots against the NOOBz, even more advanced players are often very repetitious in the way they play. The "predictability" factor is what you have to look for when choosing a line against known players.

as for how many hands you need before you can make certain plays, it depends (like all things poker related). On pokertracker, I like at least 300 hands before I even really start putting any stock into the info. At 1-2k I think you are getting a really good picture in most cases, of your opponent. Otherwise, it just depends on how many hands your opponent in showing over. If they happen to get a string of similar types of hands which they fold and show, win and show, or flip at the showdown, we can get a good lock on them much faster than 1k hands. I've certainly played with opponents that have given away all their secrets in 45 minutes or an hour of play. So it depends on the method you are using to extrapolate info and how closely you are paying attention, as well as the kinds of cardsand situations your opponent is being put in. ;)