What's up everybody. Long time reader of the forums, just decided to make an account and start to take this game seriously.

I'm currently a rising senior at Indiana University, Bloomington, so if anyone plays pokerz around there give me a shout. I've played alot of $1-$2 live games in the past, so I'm semi-comfortable with those. I'm by no means good at all, need to expand my thinking level on the game. Online I truly am lost, and looking to make a significant gain in my game.

Instead of depositing at the moment, going to make a run with the $5 my friend shipped to me, see how many $1.20's I can grind until I go crazy. I feel that my best SNG is the 180 man $4.40's on Stars, I have a decent ROI in those. However, don't have the roll to get there yet.

I guess I better ask a "beginner's" question or two.

1.) For the 1.20's, do I even need to think on any level besides what my hand is? My current feeling atm is a resounding no.

2.) Is everyone on this forum cool? I'd like to think so

Hiya rS.X and welcome. Strange name, does it mean something? I don't play these so others will be more knowledgable but I would guess you need to at least try and assign ranges to your opponents, i.e. think on the next level.

Well I'm super cool and to be honest most people on the beginners forum are ok. If anyone gets too outrageous some of us let them know. Most are here to help and learn though.

Good luck - that's not much of a roll so I hope you strike lucky early.

I'm not that cool, but welcome to the forums anyway, dude.

I think you should always be trying to put your opponent on a hand range, even bad shove donks in the micro tournies. The sooner you break the tunnel vision to your own cards, the better.

Eventually, if you keep working on it, you'll realize that you make the most money when you can figure out your opponent's tendencies and exploit them to your advantage. Your cards are a means to this end, but not the only factor. Good opponents will do this against you, so if you're just looking down at your own two pips, you're tendencies will probably be well known.

Yeah I do tend to assign basic ranges, but I feel at this level it's sometimes sooo useless, because they literally have an infinite range.

Got the roll up to $11.60 cashing 1st and 2nd in a couple earlier today, so it gives me a little more room.

My name doesn't really have any particular meaning, rs are my initials and X just increases the mystic aura surrounding me obviously. Thanks for the replies guys.

I hear what you're saying and it can be frustrating at times but it is something you need to do and becomes ever more important as you move up in stakes. What I found at the lower stakes were players had a much looser calling range - you raise "standard" amounts but get called by allsorts. However, when you face a raise that is more relevant to put them on a range. The other thing to obviously bear in mind is be fluid with your ranges, i.e. pre-flop you can guess but the actions afterwards may make you re-assess. It is very subjective and comes a little easier as you gain experience. Basically, it is just one of many tools you should arm youself with.

Nice one