Hey everyone. So I had just busted out of the 20+2 FTP NL tournament 10 away from the bubble, and I got a message from TPP little brother, Mark Mckim, saying that he was gonna play in the 10+1 that was starting in a few minutes. I decided to play in it, not really expecting to do much because I was tired, and didn't really feel like playing, but when I know I can beat one player FOR SURE, that's one mroe player I can count out of the tournament. Sorry Mark, you took a rough beat. I started off the tournament card dead. Saw cowboys once but then really didn't get a hand for the first hour. Amazingly, I ran my chip count up to 5000 by the, and with 27 remaining, I had a good chance of making the money. Then the final table came and I saw myself sitting with 12k in chips, 8th in chips, and the blinds at 600/1200 with a 150 ante. Eventually, with some luck in teh cards, I got my stack up to about 80k, after having just busted out the 4th place finisher with my qq vs his aq. Everyone was pretty even in chips, hovering around the 77k mark, until one hand.

I believe my image at the table was that I was a tight aggressive player and that I always had the goods when I entered a pot. Playing short-handed, however, has to bring a change. I played much more loose, but still tight enough where I wasn't losing anything. What I kept noticing though, was that the person to my left, was calling my raise every time, but never really raised preflop unless he had the goods. So i decided to call with anything reasonable. Then this hand came up.

SB Hero (68000)
BB Villain (65000)
Blinds 1500/3000 400 ante

Hero has j 10 o

Hero completes (knowing he wasn't going to raise unless he had a good hand)
Villain checks.

FLOP (POT = 7200)
9s Ad Kd
Hero checks
Villain bets 3550
Hero calls 3550 (I called because I felt he was weak and could steal it on the turn, plus as a semibluff, if I hit, I had the absolute nuts and could stack him incase he is strong)

Turn (Pot = 14300)
9s Ad Kd 6s
Hero bets 12000 (I bet this to try to get him to fold right there, but if he called, I was done, unless I hit a Queen. Also if he reraised, I would fold immediately with 39000 still to play with)
Villain calls 12000 (Now I know he hit that board. Most likely an Ace or a K, possibly a flush draw).

River (POT = 38300)
9s Ad Kd 6s Qs

There it was, my miracle card. It would have been better if it had been an offsuit Queen, but if he hit a backdoor flush, so be it. He wasn't going to call anything substantial, so I decided to take a nice chunk

Hero bets 15000
Villain calls 15000 shows K7o

I dragged that huge pot in, giving me over 100k, while he went on tilt, getting 3rd, and then I eventually won the tournament starting with a 3:1 chip advantage. I can't say that my play was flawless because I was caught with my hand in the cookie jar and lost half my stack earlier in the tourney and had to rebuild.

Using information you have on a player in a hand, helped me win that pot and eventually the tournament. Knowing that he was passive and that he wouldn't raise me with the goods, I knew exactly how strong he was, and was able to see that LUCKY river. All he had to do was raise me somewhere in the hand and i was out. When you are the aggressor, you always put the decision on the other player, which is always tough. I intend on playing these tournies all the time, because they have been very profitable for me.

I pride myself in being a better tourney player than a cash game player. Don't get me wrong, I have more than enough patience to play a cash game, but it just seems a tournament is worth it because of the excitement of being all-in. I play tournaments to win, so when I think I have an edge, even if it's miniscule, I play accordingly. I was in the 50+5 Bustout Bonanza tournament on Full Tilt, where top 36 pay and the winner gets around 4500 big ones. 361 platers, including pros such as Stephen Brecher, who was teh first one to bust out at my table, a pro named Quiet Lion, and Howard Lederer. None of them got past the top 200. I had been playing with this table a long time, so I knew who to mess with and how to stay away from with certain hands.

I was the chip leader with around 60000 in chips and 22 people left, when suddenly the server shut down, scaring the hell out of me, because I had worked so hard to build my stack slowly and surely. This had worked out perfectly because nobody noticed my chip stack until it was huge. When it cut out, it turned out i only missed the break, returning on the first hadn back. After 2 hands, i was now second in chips behind the guy to my immediate right. I did not want to mess with him because he had just moved to our table and I didn't have any reads on him. The first hand he came into (Hand #3 for me) he reraised a short stack who had just gone all-in for 3000 (Blinds 800/1600 w/ 200 ante) to 11000, approximately a fifth of my stack. I had QQ, and for some reason, I was scared of AA and KK, so I did the worst possible move, I called.

When goin against a new player who had just been very aggressive, the number of hands he could reraise with that I beat far outweighed the 8 6 possible ways of him beating me, so I should have pushed and isolated myself with the short stack. Calling did me no help because of the fact that I had no idea where I stood. Flop comes out beautifully, all under cards. He bet 10000, I called again, fearing that I was beat. I should haev either folded or pushed. The turn came an Ace and I was done with the hand. If that card didn't help him, he had KK and I was done anyway. So he bet again and I folded.

He flipped over A10s. I lost half of my stack because I was so worried about busting out. I then lost 2 races with short stacks, putting me down to 12000 (blinds were 1000/2000/125) and i pushed with 55. I was knocked out in 15th, about 4 hands after my huge mistake.

15th place is nothing to be ashamed of, but my timidity in one hand cost me this tournament. It's amazing how one hand in NL can destroy one's chances of winning. I made a good laydown too late when I let him catch up to me.

Oh well, there's always next time.

For those of you reading this, I am sure that a lot of you are interested in online poker. I am as well. I mainly play on two sites, each for their own reason. As I build my bankroll for Vegas, I am very cautious of my game selection. I play games I know I can easily beat and move up when my bankroll allows it. Party Poker is my site for cash games, and Full Tilt Poker is my haven for tournaments. Through trial and error, I noticed that my bankroll was going up considerably after playing these sites in their respective games.

PARTY POKER:
GOOD
1. Most famous site on the net
- Since this is the most famous, the most fish come here. I capitalize on their mistakes with my tight play (which they aren't experienced enough to notice) snd always go in with the best of it.
2. The bonuses are very easy to achieve.
- It seems every few weeks a new bonus comes out, and you don't have to play that many raked hands to get the extra $$$.
3. It's quick
- This site moves each hand along very quickly; however, you do get enough time to think about hands.

BAD
1. Tournaments
- Everyone sees the possible winnings they can get, but don't understand the numbers they have to defeat(This is not just including players). Not only do you havea small chance at winning based on the number of people in these tournaments, but the blind schedule and amount of starting chips gives you a horrible disadvantage to win. Eventually, the blinds get so high so quickly, everyone can only go all in. Skill does not win these tournaments in my opinion. Getting the cards at the right time and getting lucky in the community cards win tournaments. Hand selection goes way down.
2. Amount of people playing
- It is very easy to play the good cards the right way; however, to play the mediocre ones not knowing if they're good is hard and reads are very important. Knowing your competition is very important, whether he's good/bad or LAG/TAG/LP/TP. Notes on your opponent are key. The problem with Party is that it is so hard to run into a player you have played before that those mediocre hands are much harder to call with. That is where the money is.

FULL TILT POKER
GOOD
1. Tournaments
- FTP is BY FAR the best site for tournaments. The blind schedules are perfect, very slow in the beginning so you can build your chips. This definitely promotes good poker. It is much more enjoyable. The payouts are not as good, but your chances of winning are much better if you are a good player. Every tournament takes luck to win, but good players usually win these things.
2. Fewer players
- The number of players on this site are dramatically lower than on PP. Notes can be taken on players and you are very likely to have at least one person you know at your table. This is very advantageous for you because you know what you need to know about these players so you don't make a mistake against them.
3. The layout of the site
- In my opinion, this is the best looking site. Some advantages are that it has different avatars so you can choose how you look (I'm a donkey :P), you can move to any seat you want, so if you do multi-table, you dont have to click on each screen to see yourself. You can position yourself so you can see your seat in every game you are in. Plus, the site is very easily manageable to be able to cash out and change options.
4. The Pros
- What better way to gain knowledge than to play with the pros. I myself have played with Erik Seidel, Jennifer Harman, Erik Lindgren, and Howard Lederer (Jennifer took me for 25 bucks, lucky though, caught her quads on the river to beat my top set). They always answer questions, they usually show their hands so you can see how they play. It's a great experience.

BAD
1. Fewer Fish
- This is why I don't play the cash games anymore. On PP, i can locate about 5 fish on average on each table. On FTP, there aren't as many LPs as you could hope for. Of course, people give away money, but for the most part, everyone in the cash game is pretty tight. The looser players are in the tournaments. This is much more of a grind.
2. Gameplay
- This site does not give you a long time to think about your hands. I believe it is around 30 seconds. I think a lot during hands, so this is not very advantageous for me.
3. Bonuses
- If you are bonus whoring, not a good place to go. The point system for bonuses is very bad. Do not go to this site to bonus whore.

If you haven't noticed yet, every negative on PP is a positive for FTP and vice versa. Remember where your strengths are and play according to your bankroll. Do not stretch it out. Mine happen to be this way.

Good luck.

Well hello there everybody, I've been a part of TPP for a solid 2 months, but have contributed nothing. I apologize for not doing anything sooner, but alas, I am a college student with other things to do. Let me just start off by saying that i do not consider myself an expert in poker, but I do consider myself quite knowledgeable. No limit is the only way to play in my opinion. I started playing a little more than 2 years ago. I've read quite a few books, and typically play the 20 dollar buy-in games. I have gone to games where the buy-in was 150, but I only played it when I was way up. Those of you who are reading this are either beginners looking for advice, or regular players who want to know opinions. Well I am here to offer you the best advice that I can.

The first thing that I wanted to talk about was the common misconception of this game. This is a game of luck. Sometimes, I think a lot of people forget that. So many people think that they are so skillful that they should win every time. Wrong. It does not matter how good you are, you can always get beaten. That's just the foundation of this game. Even the Bulls lost 10 games in '96. Every combination of pocket cards has the same chance of occurring. It's your choice on what you play. If you stick to hands that have a high percentage of winning, you will win a perecnt of the time.

A lot of people have spoken to me saying "How can he call me with that?!?!" or "How could he chase that? I was not giving him the odds to do so?!?!" Sure, pot odds are a very good way of determining whether or not to call a bet, but a lot of people don't understand pot odds, so what does it matter. People gamble. Sure, there is a lot of skill in the game. The use of probability, psychology, and basic correct play make a lot of good players who they are; however, it doesn't matter how perfect you play. There is ALWAYS a chance to be beaten, unless you hold the absolute nuts. Pocket rockets can be beaten by KK just as easily as it can be beaten by 72 offsuit. The chance that they'll beat AA are slim, but it's still there. Miracles happen.

There is no such thing as a person who wins every time at the table. The best players minimize the luck factor in the game as much as possible. They play hands where they have the best possibility of winning. Remember, any two cards can win. Those bad beats you are receiving will be minimal if you play the cards right. Over the long run, if you minimize your risk and play the cards that have the best chance in winning, you will be a winning poker player.