Im fairly new to Replay Poker and so far I like it! 
One of the things I’ve noticed (I’m only playing the tournaments) is that in the beginning to mid or even late in the tournaments everyone calls all the time? If I raise 3 times or 4 times the blinds I will have 6 callers at a 9 player table but no one ever re-raises everyone just calls. I just find it strange lol
So I find myself raising even higher 5 times the blind to get some folds and the table probably thinks Im a maniac but eventually I’ll start to see those folds but only once the stakes get real high.
Maybe this is only because I haven’t played to many tournaments here? Anyway I think Im counteracting it ok, any thoughts what you would do? I don’t think sitting and waiting for good cards is the way to go (might get blinded out).
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First of all, welcome. Hope you enjoy it here for a long time. Lots of nice people to be found.
2nd - you have come across an aspect of the poker played in much of the site that confounds many of us. There are the tables where everyone limps in every hand. Then there are tables where everyone flat-calls any raise and still sees the flop. It is bizarre behavior from a technical standpoint and I have yet to find a great solution for it. Hopefully others who have been here longer than I have will provide some advice on how to counter it.
One player explained it to me this way - its free poker and people don’t log on to fold. That may be the simplest explanation for why it happens but doesn’t give a whole lot of insight about how to deal with it.
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Warlock,
This is why… even tho I should play only High or higher, I still will play Low because it keeps me sharper. By that I mean, as long as I don’t allow it to give me bad habbits, you see far wider play at that level and have to adjust/watch for it.
Mcarr,
Part of it is, well its online free poker… MTT strategy also adds into it… or even , If I reraise the dude to my left might shove, so I better just call … there are so many reasons why ppl make any play, its hard without watching the whole MTT as you see it, to fully answer your question.
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Pretty simple really. There is no real risk involved. Its all just numbers on a screen with no real value. So, why not call…
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[quote=“NotTheOne, post:4, topic:6614”]
Its all just numbers on a screen with no real value. So, why not call…
[/quote]Really… NotTheOne ???
We should play, I’ll even buy the 1st drink…
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We have played several times and I wouldnt suggest drinking while playing against you. Im not trying to diminish the validity of these replay accounts. I just call it how I see it. There is no monetary value in the chips here. You can buy them but cannot return them or sell them so tell me, what value do these chips have? Im not saying that is how I play. I have an 87% fold rate. Im as tight as can be when playing. If it comes down to whether to call or not, I see no harm or reason not to call. Its not like we are betting real money. Replay is an excellent tool and has great entertainment value but lets not act like we are going to get everyone to play like its real money because its not.This is just my perspective and opinion.
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@1Warlock @Sassy_Sarah @NotTheOne Thank you for all the insights its greatly appreciated! It does seem like a great community 
It’s very funny to me that it never dawned on me that yes its just free poker and thats why they would be calling, but even though its free I still have a competitive edge and I want to improve my game (I couldn’t see the free aspect could only see the finish line).
I’ve finished in the top of a few MTT so far YAY! So hopefully soon I’ll have some chips to play a the higher stakes. Any suggestions for higher stakes MTT NL?
Again seriously appreciate the insights.
P.S. I’ll buy the first round… so thirsty 
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My advise is to buy enough chip to escape the lowest level madness. You wouldn’t hesitate to spend $50-70 on a triple A title that you will beat on 20-40 hours, why not spend the same on a game you will enjoy for years?
Chips here don’t have a direct cash value, but they do have a time value. What’s your time worth? As they say, time is money, right? You could get a part time job flipping burgers for $5 an hour and would have $50 in 10 hours. If you use this to buy a million chips, you could play a lot of 10k MTTs and not worry about your bank.
Or you could spend 50 hours tap dancing through the minefield of the lowest stakes and maybe earn your first million that way… maybe. To me, it’s a no-brainer.
I see limpers as mostly dead money. Lower the boom on them and take your chances early on. You don’t have to be super tight, just a bit tighter than the field. If you bust out early, so what? You won’t be playing above your bank, and their’s always another tourney starting soon. The weaker players will mostly be gone by the first break, and someone will have their chips. If it’s not you with these chips, you will be playing catch up against a progressively tougher field.
Embrace you inner maniac. Play to double or triple or bust in the first few levels. If you double or triple, you can coast to the first break, which is when the real tournament starts. Forget bluffing and “tricky” play until after the first break. Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!
Pick a bracket and stick to it. For example, play only medium MTTs, and don’t play anything else. There are leaderboards for every bracket, and these can add a lot of chips at the end of the month if you play enough to finish in the top 15 (?) or so. Focus your efforts, don’t water down your results by playing tournies in multiple brackets.
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From the 1st time you said this, it has been one of my all-time favorite phrases. I keep forgetting to do it though - maybe time for my 1st tattoo to remind me?
You were doing it for awhile, and said it was working. How could you forget?
But yeah, a tat might be what you need. Just don’t forget to add the byline. And please do send pics, thanks!
Because I played live again and was lit up for almost 5-figures in a 10/20 cash game. Afterwards one of the people I play with regularly asked me if I had starting using recreational pharmaceuticals. I also started playing on an AI simulator and am trying to get my technical game up to snuff. Hard to go back and forth.
Understood. Free online skill can kill your live cash game, no doubt about it.
On the other hand, my tourniy strategy was developed and refined in small buyin real money online MTTs, so I know it can work in both. at least with a few adjustments.
As I mentioned before, I divide a tournament into 7 stages and play a different strategy in each, but that’s all I’m willing to say about it!
Edited to add… i will say that my system was developed before Durr came on the scene. My role models were Phil Ivey and Gus Hanson.
I may have mentioned this before but I came late to tournament poker (5 1/2 years ago) and even later to online poker. Because of where I live, I cant legally play for money online so that experience has almost entirely been with free/social sites like this one. All I will say about it is that it is quite different from what I’m used to - and in some ways that’s the most enjoyable part about it.
I never modeled my game after any pro because when I started playing, it was well before Chris Moneymaker exploded the game into the public eye. I knew locals who were tough and I tried to learn from them. Just lots and lots of hands over lots and lots of years. Frankly, I only started trying to understand the game on a deeper level when I decided to try tournaments for the 1st time. Its been an interesting learning curve.
Now that I think about it, my game is almost exactly like Chris Ferguson’s - minus the hat and the talent
Added - This will give you an idea of how I learned the game and from what type of person. When I was in maybe 8th or 9th grade, I once complained to my grandfather about how much pressure I felt I was under studying for exams. He said “pressure is playing straight pool for $1 a ball when you only have 50-cents in your pocket to start with”. He taught me well but it was definitely through the school of hard knocks, not through a book or with a coach.
The school of hard knocks grants the only diplomas worth a damn, but you can pick up a thing or 2 by watching how successful players approach the game.
“Let him act like the clever archers who, designing to hit the mark which yet appears too far distant, and knowing the limits to which the strength of their bow attains, take aim much higher than the mark, not to reach by their strength or arrow to so great a height, but to be able with the aid of so high an aim to hit the mark they wish to reach.” - Nicolo Machiavelli, from “The Prince”
Back to the topic of the thread - would somebody who thinks giving the blinds cheap/free looks at flops is a solid strategy for success please tell me why? For the life of me I don’t understand it at all. That’s money out there BLIND - attack it. If you aren’t outright taking the blinds, at least make those positions pay to see flops. IMO, if you aren’t looking to take those players out of the hand while leaving their chips in the pot, then you aren’t playing solid poker.
Put it this way - if you aren’t in the blinds, you get to look at your cards before deciding to place an initial bet on the table. If you don’t think your hand is better than 2 random cards, why are you putting any money in the middle at all? You have the advantage of position on the blinds on top of it. If being able to select your hand plus the advantage of position isn’t enough for you to raise the pot coming in, I don’t know what to tell you.
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Agree great reply @1Warlock
Warlock/mcarr,
There really are alot of reasons ppl do it, most of them prolly long term are not helpfull, but then there are also things you will see live or say on the 50k/100k tables, that just flat out aren’t happening enuff in =< 50k MTTs, and =< 5k/10k Ring. I chalk that up to inexperienced players, or players who can’t pull the damn trigger…
When you see 5 of 9 ppl limp/bb/sb the flop, then check down to river, and still all 5 check… something is wrong. I guess its lack of knowing your opponents have miss’d and should fold to a med bet… Sometimes it boils down to, if ppl will let you see cheap cards… see free cards, I guess. I also see this at bars, where only prizes are available, but usually there is 1-2 ppl @ each table that live off these players.
You also see it more early in a MTT than late in a MTT, prolly because ppl are playing smallball + trying to limit the pace others are getting ahead in stacks. By the end stages of a MTT, the quality of players has increased enuff… that this sort of play isn’t allowed to continue to occur.
For whatever reasons, it happens more online and more where its free chips.
Im slowly on my way to the higher tables so shouldn’t be an issue for too much longer
[quote=“Sassy_Sarah, post:18, topic:6614”]
I chalk that up to inexperienced players, or players who can’t pull the damn trigger…
[/quote] Valid statement as well (Smiling).
This site is fantastic! You guys/gals are alright!
