Yeah, this is a good point to bring up. TBH, I had forgotten that this was where I had picked up this nugget of wisdom. But it coming from him reminds me to say two things:

1. When you raise from EP with big suited connectors, it is actually much more common for you to flop a tough decision than an easy one. Say you raised KJs and you whiff on the flush/straight possibilities but pick up a pair of kings. This is not really that good a flop (in that you are in trouble if the pot starts getting big), and you have to play it carefully.

2. Points like point 1 are so elementary to Baluga Whale that he sometimes forgets to mention them when he is doing his video commentary. I lost some big pots with top pair ****ty kicker before I relearned the lesson as it applies to deep FR.

Very true and very important for newer players to understand. I think Baluga does mention in your video that the hero needs to be able to lay down TPGK hands to aggression and to refrain from building big pots, but it is worth re-emphasizing the point here.

I play NL25 and starting to play NL50 on FT usually play every night (Australia time) so early morning US. Looking forward to play much more in 2009!

Are you just playing broadway suited-connectors or do you extend them further, like to 78s?

Hello, everyone. I'm a relative newcomer to FT trying to grind my way up at the 10NL tables. Started with $50 and using the Chris Ferguson method of bankroll management I've run up to a high of $125 in a couple months, although lately the bad beats and calls from donks who flop lucky against me are bordering on ridiculous (Seriously who calls a 4xBB raise (I had KK)with a J4 offsuit!?!). Anyway, I'm a loonnnggg time lurker here at 2+2 and decided I'd finally register. Hope to see you at the tables, just try to dump me some chips!!!

Yeah, it wasn't his best fight and Mir actually looked really good. It will be interesting to see his match up with Brock again. I missed the first one.

It is a little sad to see those guys slipping (Hughes comes to mind too). Then again I give them all mad props anyway. I train MMA just as a hobby and it's some hard %!@#$ so I'd pretty much never talk smack about any of them.

I feel your pain about grinding out of 10. Has anyone explained the effect of the high rake on FT at 10NL to you? That is part of what is making it hard for you to grind up. BTW even $125 is a little under-rolled for 10NL. Most people around here are going to recommend 20 buy ins for your current level. You might want to switch to pokerstars for a while and play lower or deposit more. Step one for you definitely is to do a little reading on bankroll. Unless you have more money to deposit if you go busto... but if that's the case and you have been winning at 10NL over a reasonable sample I'd suggest depositing and moving up.

I raise 87s, 98s, and T9s from EP once and awhile if table conditions are right and also to balance my range - disclaimer: I play 100nl and I realize that range balancing is not that important at 25NL or 50NL.

If there are deep stacked (130bbs+) players in LP I like playing these hands because they can flop big hands that will allow you to stack players. If an A or K falls you can still cbet bluff profitably and take the pot down.

I hope you have rakeback man! I would seriously consider depositing more money and playing 25NL if you are able to. If you're not able to then grinding 10NL on Stars is your best bet.

Beware of this shark, ye FT regs posting here.

He has taken much of my money.

Hey all,

I began grindin 25nl regularly on FT at the beginning of December, definitely find the deep tables much better than the regular tables since I can't stand those damn shortstackers!! Took a break from FT towards the end of December because I swore to myself that I was doomswitched in 50nl hu lol, realizing that was stupid and I miss rakeback. Will be heading back to FT now, not sure if I will try out 6max instead though, since I played a frustrating 35k hands at 25nl fr running about 3bb/100.

Also, for the players talking about Stoxpoker and CR'ers memberships, did you sign up through their truly free poker training thing? I'm definitely interested in doing this as long as it doesn't affect my rakeback.

Yeah, I've heard (and seen thanks to Poker Tracker) what the rake is doing to me. Unfortunately, depositing for me isn't an option right now. I actually have studied a lot about BR management and that's why I liked Chris Ferguson's method. I know I'm underrolled for the limit, but I only take a max of 5% of my total roll to a table (roughly $5 at a time now), and I adjust up or down as my roll changes. Believe me, moving up is definitely a goal of mine. If the cold card run will finally snap, I can get back to working on it. I do mix in an occasional SnG and have had some good runs at the $1+.25 5 table ones. I'm patient, I consider myself a pretty TAG player, so I want to beleive I'll get the roll up there. Thanks for the advice though!

hi all,

I am TorrentialRain on FT and I play 25 NL. Usually about 4 tables at a time. I don't play the deep tables though, mainly due to roll consideration and my fear of more good regs at a table.

Think ive seen ya a bit at 25NL, TorrentialRain.

I grind out 8 tables of 25NL, donking off occasionally.

Usually run pretty well but getting sick of the AA v KK coolers. Hoping to move up to 50NL by March.

I used to play 50NL and 100NL early last year, but due to a need for some hefty withdraws, I'm back to 25NL for a bit.

I probably just hit some 2 outers on you.

Is it just me or do tables get significantly tighter during Happy Hour? I'm wondering if it's worth it at all or if I should play an hour or two after.

I only play an hour or so - if at all - a day.

I no longer play $50 because you pwn me and I had to get away from you.

It depends on the day, but in general yeah they tighten up, at least at nl25. Hard to tell right now cause people are bonus clearing too. I think its the number of short stackers, which causes people to tighten up a bit. They come out during happy hour.

Hey kflip.

From what I've experienced players generally loosen up around happy hour at 6 am eastern time . Seems like all the americans play a loosey goosey game(which is awesome for me). When i play around 9 am eastern. When its mostly europeans, I generally lose. It seems like there is more incentive to gamble during happy hours, because of the more rake= more FTP. At least thats how I played when first started full tilt when i was a total noob hahaha.

really? depends on which happy hour i guess. cuz i always find the games pretty good at happy hour...the happy hours' i ususally play during are the ring game happy hour and the late night happy hour.

Haha, didn't even know there's different happy hours. I've only been playing a couple times in the one starting at 15:00 server time b/c that's 9 pm for me.

Tables seemed way tighter compared to later and especially much later, but small sample size

2nd page We get owned by the pokerstars thread!!

How's everybody doing? I gotta remember not to stack of TPTK to reasonable villains... Maybe I should do the "Don't stack off TPTK" post it on the monitor thing to remind me. Anybody have any rules of thumb for what a reasonable villain is haha? Usually I'm OK felting TPTK to a lot of the high 20, 30+ VPIP guys, but even then I like to have a read that they will show down worse hands. Where do you draw the line against semi-unknowns (i.e... you have some hands on them but don't have a solid read that they will overplay TPGK/TPWK)?

PS I'm still going back and forth on the deep vs regular tables @ 25. I am noticing that I'm seeing the same regs on a bunch of my deep tables which may or may not be -EV for me. They aren't great players by any means... but still, it might be better to seek out more fish. Maybe I will try half and half for a while and see if there is any difference in my win rates.

That's my favorite note . . . 'Will stack off with TP'

Yeah that's a good one. If I stupidly stacked off to someone with TPTK when I shouldn't have I usually make a note on them that I did hoping they will pay off my sets in the future. But still, metagame aside, I think I'm just gonna try to remember it's not the nutz haha.

LOL--maybe that should be the post it note ""TPTK is not the nuts"