Yes, I ...the guy who had almost given up on this crazy place is actually about ready to play for keeps now.

In 4 days, I have transformed, and thought of nothing but poker. Reading everything I could get my hands on, and learning about reads, tells, and classifications of players at your table. These are things I never took into account before.

Now along with table image, and my basic knowledge of pot odds, and my betting in NL games I have aquired an heir of confidence in my game that I think might be bigger than my ability, but is DEFINITELY not bigger than my potential. I've touched the ice with what I CAN do with this game, now it's up to me to gain as much knowledge from whatever source there is to harness and adjust my theory to fit different situations I will encounter.

Now...basic tendencies I'll spill here because you've all seen it, and its helped in the freerolls, and on play money so far that I now have 700k in play money, and am easily walking into freerolls and aquiring between 6 and 10k in the first hour on regularity. Sometimes more.

Basic Tendencies....

Tight yet agressive as the blinds are small. I'll play most suited pocket cards, and those that are higher I'll usually raise preflop. I'll raise accordingly to how many people are in the pot when it comes to me, or based on postion. I think I have a pretty good grip on this technique, and even have slow played pocket pairs to major winnings. Hell, I try as hard as the next guy to be unpredictable, and I have to honestly believe that anyone that sucks out on me once, will be trapped the time I get nuts.

Then Tight but even more aggressive with smaller stacks, and when the preflop folds around to me. Yeah I'll buy the blinds, its no biggie. And it works most of the time. Good 4x pot betting usually erases any hopes of their seeing a flop. If they call, and I dont make a hand I'll usually try and put them on a hand and play it accordingly.

I dont see the flop on many crap hands, unless there is hardly anyone in the hand, the blinds are small, and I have a decent stack.

Stupid players, who call 3x pot size bets on draws are gonna make me money in the long run, so I'm not worried about one hand, and I actually learned a little something about mentioning it in the chat window in a game. Keep your mouth shut, cuz they got lucky, they'll try again, and next time they wont be so lucky. Thanks bjy.

Now...Basically my plans whether I depo my 50 or just sell 500k for 20 is this. Ghetto tourneys...

And lots of em. I figure I can place mid money if not top 30 now if I only had a buck in the roll...I'm that confident. But once I get it, I plan to get into tourneys when I can and build it into something decent, enough to play the .10/.25 nl games.

I dont quite have the knowledge of LIMIT poker as of now to waltz into a ring money game and have the confidence I do in my NL game. Now, if someone wants to post some tips on Limit games, and thinks that a beginner on the money circuit would be better off playing limit then by all means, hook a brother up. I'll promise not to take too much money from ya.

But my main confidence is in NL and have been reading alot of online articles on cardplayer.com and stuff thats posted at RPG.

Lil tips here and there that have really helped me to get a firm grasp for my time spent. Thanks go out to Ry for the hook up to rpg, and cardplayer.com. Cardplayer especially as they have regular columnists that offer advice and tips that will help you to maintain composure and keep a straight head thru most situational betting calling raising re-raising and mucking (and taking your losses). Making losses minimal and gains being maxxed is the goal of any poker player at any limit, and I'm looking at my theorys on situations and finding flaws all the time. And those flaws I find, are being corrected with every hand I play.

Now for the reason I have posted this...

I wanna know from those that have played with me, or those that have experience dealing with real money games.

Just what can I expect to be different in low limit nl holdem from say 100/200 nl play money?

What theories on beginner hands should be generalized as rule to play or muck?

What raising techniques if different are generally employed when playing to flush out a draw hand, while maintaining your stack if someone calls and bets you out? 2-3x pot is my general rule of thumb. But if this is different in real money, I figure its better to know now.

Will players at .01/.02 nl tables fish for draws like they do with play money? or is it more like real poker. A decent raise post flop will generally flush out those looking at a draw and nothing else?

I'm sure there will be plenty more questions, but I have class...So I will leave this here for anyone that wants to help a brotha out. Any advice or differences that I may not have mentioned or asked abut from the play money to real money is greatly appreciated. I'll be starting off with LOW limit NL ring games like .o1/.02 if at all with my first depo. And will follow the guideline of "playing without the option of rebuying, and starting with a dollar". Just like I do at the 100/200 tables. Start with 8k. Build to over 100k. Easy. Can I employ the same winning technique at the money tables?

Am I about to fucked cuz i dont know shit and am I just running into a great streak of cards? Tell me...dont beat around the bush. I'd rather know now if I need to assess something in my game before making the jump than paying for my lesson. I actually read a couple of articles and tweaked my game a little more today to fit what I think will accomodate the real money games. And I built a stack from 8k to 70k in about an hour. Easy. The cards arent AWESOME, but something about my confidence is telling me right now that I cant be taken down. Not with the teachers I ahve, and not with the time I put in reading up and figuring out what holes I do have and tweaking my thinking in certain situations.

I'll close it with this general rule I've employed after recently reading an article on cardplayer.com.

The difference between a good nl player and a bad one is simple. A good player knows when to pull the trigger, and does, a bad one sits back and stares at the gun.

Sound like a decent enough general rule? You're thoughts are appreciated. Thanks for wading thru all my rhetoric. And I'll be back later hopefully with some replies.

Lata.