Quote:
These days, NL is almost always played with a "capped buy-in", which technically means it isn't NL at all. It's a kind of spread-limit where you can bet anywhere from the big blind amount up to the maximum buy-in.
This was a facination read. I'd kind of realized a lot of what you're talking about in my limited experience with ring games- but perhaps not to the full extent you're talking about. I learned very early on to buy in at the max in ring games, because you can put immense pressure on the *many* players who buy in for a lot less. Even at that, though, you are still in a pressured position and don't have as much manuvering room as you'd have if you had no limit on your buy in.

Quote:
To use your example of overbetting the pot to force out flush draws, in a real NL game with deep stacks, I can call this overbet on the flop, provided that you still have lots of money in front of you. Now if I catch my draw, you'll make another pot-sized bet and I can set you all-in, or I can wait until the river to do this. The odds on the flop don't mean nearly as much when the money is deep. How do you like your set when you get check-raised all-in on the river when the 3rd flush card comes? A tough NL player can do this as a bluff, too.
I see what you're talking about here, and I see why the caps make such a big deal. I know about implied odds, but its also true that the implied odds are almost never enough in the games I play to make that call correct. There just isn't enough money at the table (which is your whole point).

Quote:
The Sit-N-Go's are particularly short stacked. Because of this, it is extremely easy to protect your hand with a pot overbet (because there are no implied odds, nobody can profitably call short), and in my opinion, it becomes a very simple game to play.
Well yes, which is why I am doing well in such a short time. It's fun to win!

Quote:
Ferguson and Harrington have both said that the #1 tournament poker skill is knowing the end-game strategy for very short-money preflop all-in moves.
Yes, and I've taken this to heart. What I love about the sng games is that I get about 45 minutes with a high M, enough time to hit my "One Big Hand" and establish that I am a conservative player who only plays a few starting hands. Once we hit the inevitable phase where everyone is playing with a small M and a short table, I've learned to switch my style to compensate. At least at the $10 level I've noticed that most players fail to do this well and it's very easy to win more games than I lose.

Quote:
Because of these issues with NL poker, capped buy-in or not, the long-term future of Holdem is limit. Limit is a vastly more complex game (compared to capped buy-in NL), for reasons you suggest -- you can't easily protect your hand with an overbet.
Ok, I'll buy this. Probably the reason I'm better at NL

I downloaded the two programes you mentioned and am slighly overwhelmed, though it looks like there is some great information there. My favorite feature so far is the pop ups that show mucked hands. I'm ALWAYS digging through the history to see these hands, so that feature alone is worth the purchase. However, as far as the statistics on the players go, do you have any insights on what the most important ones are and how to read them?
_________________________
-Jeff
Rome did not create a great empire by having meetings; they did it by killing all those who opposed them.