Show me some evidence thaty a loose passive strategy wins.

Maybe it's the size of the stacks that makes the difference. You're sitting with 100K+ in a game. How often are people going to be pushing all in for 100K?

It might also be that a lot of thier main focus is getting the most out of a hand. A lot of these guys aren't dumb when it comes to playing poker, they're also not trying to see who has the biggest set of balls by trying to shove someone off a hand. My guess is they're usually trying to make the most by trying to extract the correct amount of $ in their hands. A lot of times they seem to know what their opponets will or won't call in a lot of situations.

A lo of these guys play with each other very frequently, which you won't find all that ofen in online games. Players like Doyle, Daniel, Harman, Barry Greenstein, Farha, etc. All play with each other almost nightly in the big game so my guess is they tend to know their players very well. They're good at puting players on hands, getting the most out of their opponents, and knowing what amounts their opponets will and won't call with.

While it's probably true shoving on the flop in situations might win you let's say a 15K pot, they probably figure if their reads are accurate they might be able to get several thousand more from their opponet by letting the hand play out as opposed to killing it at a certain point. They generally know that a particular opponent would call say a 8K bet on the turn but would fold for 12K, so why shove? If you know they won't call 12K what would shoving accomplish? Not to mention you lose the additional 8K you might get from you opponent.

That's what is interesting about watching "Poker After Dark" with all the table chatter you can get an idea of what they're doing. There's been times when they've said "if you bet more I would've folded" or "he would of folded if I bet anything there so I had to check and hope he bet" etc. So even though it's a tournament it I feel it gives a little insight into how they're playing opponets who they know very well.

Just my .02

I hardly every CRAI with a big drawing semibluff type hand and i do pretty well online. But alot of times the people who give me alot of trouble are those type players. I think Im good enough to adapt if they do it too often, but a good mix of TAG play and unbridled aggression is very tough to beat.

I see none of this in the HSP

Someone like Xaston might get killed because he would never get in enough hands for variance to work itself out, but if someone played TAG 2/3 of the time and Xastonesque the rest of the time, I think they would be the big winner. Maybe there just nobody that can play that way.

Heres a hand I played yesterday...

UTG min raises. 2 callers and I call in the BB with [7c].

Flop [8c][6d]. I lead $14 into $16 pot. UTG call as does another guy.
Pot $58. Turn . I now have a TP, a flush draw and a str8 draw. Alot of good online players would CRAI here (assuming stack sizes are right). Most HSP players would check / call or bet out. Of course most of them wouldnt even have led out on the flop in the first place.

I think checking and calling that turn is awesome to be honest. You've got a compltely concealed flush draw and a semi-concealed straight draw. Plus TP may very well be good.