I'm learning to avoid what I call trick hands and many times in a tournament which I go deep I have avoided a half dozen of such hands. It is hard to fold Jacks over eights only to have the river bring the fourth 8 for the other player. I've folded some great hands after the flop only to find out the river would have beat me, better to pick a more favorable spot I guess. GL hope you can avoid the luck box fever, Tex

I understand the frustration. But FWIW, I have a white hand and can't beat Q-9o (a multi-trophy player who called my heads-up allin with a stack barely bigger than mine) with KK. So take comfort in knowing even some of us white hands get sucked out on on a regular basis : )

Actually I appriciate your post. I spent the remainder of last year ( since I was to late to even hink about SPOY ) purposefully pulling out WH's into the pot and pushing and calling to see the hand. recording as well. I saw what to me seemed incredibly suspicious to say tthe least. Some just downright unbelivable. Preflop calls with hands as a cash tourny player , you would never compromise your stack with on a preflop raise , much less one thatt puts more han 50% of your stack in!?!?!?!?!

I find it interesting to note , i spentt the las tpart of december monitoring hands,. playing anything jjust to engage other players and force a show. I noticed tthe following things. The number of PP in any one given hand, the number of times a short stack pushes all in and flops a set ot str8 etc. the number of times a WH pushed preflop wih junk to be met with pok KK and smashes the kings with thier 5/8 os with 2 pair . Also something interesting to me is the # of preflop hands that connect

I think that while it may seem that WH or some other group are getting priority , i think its more the program is writtn in a way to stimulate as much possible betting in any given hand... The more betting the more quickly the filed is reduced, allowing players who are done to start into new games and keeping the tourny length to a minimum. Otherwise how long would a 1200 person tourny really last if large betting wasnt highly encouraged by the board, this seems to hold true for all net sites

we are all donkeys being led along in the hopes of a win the rpomise of possible fortunes, and when we loose tthere is another game wiating for us.. This is a business, and from a business pespective thier pobjective is to keep ppl comeing back and paying... The average working guy doesnt have 15 hours to devote to online Tourny play everynight, but he does and can pay. small wins keep people paying and playing with the hope of hiting a big FT. weaveing thru the donk boards is the task. ADDICTIO

when I look at how players play against my hands, it gives me an idea about that player. the worst ones to read are by far a white hand and if they talk too, ur in for just about anything. My strategy is simple with them, take notes on them, write off what happens to them to just getting to know them. they are easy to place playing one way or the other after a few "feelers" and then just change ur notes as they adjust to playing here.

when I look at how players play against my hands, it gives me an idea about that player. the worst ones to read are by far a white hand and if they talk too, ur in for just about anything. My strategy is simple with them, take notes on them, write off what happens to them to just getting to know them. they are easy to place playing one way or the other after a few "feelers" and then just change ur notes as they adjust to playing here.

In my ever so humble opinion, I find it to be true that when a WH pushes all-in pre-flop with a marginal hand is because the WH is in fear that he will be out played if they simply call the bet. They are unsure of how to play a marginal hand in middle position so instead they push it all in and do a little prayer to the poker gods. Sure they can use the excuse they were trying to steal the pot but the true reason is they lack the skill and knowledge to finish a hand. Just adjust and u'll be fine