ONLINE POKER - SITE - Full Tilt

[2HighIsTheNutz]

FTP totally turns you into a better donkey. There is no other way to win. Sometimes it does really feel like the person knows what cards are coming - you bet, he raises, you re-raise and a guy pushes with air only to catch runner-runner flush or straight? Even a retarded monkey would know he's beat. It's time and time again. And I remember times when guys DON'T catch either, since the hand is memorable either way for its mind-bending stupidity. These are 5-10% to-win hands that catch up all the time.

Pokerstars just gave me $5 free for a promotion. I went into a micro-buyin 9-handed SNG. First big hand I was in I had 7-7 and flopped a set. Bet 1/2 the pot, 1 caller, another blank comes but it was a third heart. Bet the pot, guy calls again. I just had that sinking feeling again from being on FTP for so long, I just knew he must have the flush. So I folded on the river after he went all-in. Guy shows top pair. Sigh. So I had lost 1/3 of my stack right off the bat by getting scared off. Re-oriented myself, told myself this is donkey-city at these limits, this was not FTP and to play the damn game as it should be played. Came back and took the whole table down, and even had a great heads-up battle that could have gone either way that felt like poker not BINGO. And you know what, in the big hands in the late stages, if I have Q-Q and another guy has 9-9 or something, well, it holds up 80% of the time! If I have K-K and the other guy has A-Q, well, he catches that ace about 25% of the time! Really takes some getting used to. And even at this low buy-in table, table image actually played a factor! If I was playing 15% of my hands, and I raised 3-4x the blind, well people often folded. I could exploit that image later to steal a pot here and there when the blinds were high to stay alive for a big hand. On FTP, even at much higher buy-ins, you could fold 100 hands in a row, catch A-A and go all-in for 50x the BB and SOMEONE will STILL call with A-x, K-x, or a small pair and catch some miracle card every time. AT THE VERY BEST YOU'RE GETTING A COIN FLIP DONKEY - WHY WOULD YOU RISK YOUR ENTIRE STACK ON A COIN FLIP WHEN YOU CAN WAIT AND GET YOUR MONEY IN AS A FAVOURITE OR AT LEAST BE THE AGGRESSOR IN THE SITUATION!?!?!?!?! ... oh wait, of course, it's FTP. The stupider the call, the higher the odds you'll get there.