[scrawnybob]

hi Dazzler

bit of tricky one this -

on the one hand you shouldn't start playing total junk hands in any position - this will get you in trouble in ring or tournament games

but in a tournie you cant sit on your hands for too long as you will get blinded away

online poker is now the frontier country of the new ultra super aggressive poker - this must NOT be confused with playing like a fish

Lots of average / intermediate players are failing to adapt to the increasingly aggressive environment where -

there are good players who understand the massive implied odds which most online NL games now have online

with

thinking they are playing against fish

the problem which text book players (intermediates) is that to them good players now look more like fish when in fact they are sharks

and this causes an awful lot of players to moan about bad beat when in fact it's down to being out played by someone who really embraces the concept of implied odds fully

I've rambled off the subject a bit but the crucial thing is to build and press home your table image - you need to really really really scrwew with peoples heads

you need to out play them within a broader spectrum of playable hands - but sticking to a framework of positional play

you also need to be able to get players to think they understand you game and then throw them a curve ball

when they see this - they are back to guesswork - and that is the single most scary place for a poker player to be - guessing in the dark what any of your bets mean

in short - pots odds are important (especially in Limit) but in NL implied odds is what its about NOT pot odds

In terms of not getting any hands for an hour - this will happen in terms of not getting the textbook hands - but you have to look at it like this - the other players cannot see you cards so they will be expecting everyone to get a roughly even amount of good / bad hands in the space of an hour (online)

If you dont then you have to repressent them in late position and utilise scare cards - this again is another key tool for winning

hope thats a help - cheers scrawnybob