[GeeBeeQED]

[ QUOTE ]
....
The last question may deserve it's own thread, but I'll ask it here. If my goal is to improve my live play, primarily for home cash & tournament games. How can I utilize internet poker to improve my skills for live play?

Thanks to all for your replies.

[/ QUOTE ]

Personally, I use online play as my experimenting ground for betting patterns and such. I tend to play certain games to beef up the online bankroll up and others to try to learn something new about player tendancies. My most serious poker is live because that is where my buyins are larger and where my edge is much better. Online you can see so many more hands per hour and test ideas out more thuroughly in a shorter period of time. Also, it's hard to get short handed live time in, there are only so many tourny's you can get into. Online, I can work on my headup game for hours if I like. And yes, I think this practice has made me much better live.

I can't get over how many people want to chop a live tourny. They are so afraid to change up thier play and dance in the minefield. I NEVER CHOP! To me, the idea of a negotiated settlement is like cowardly Neville Chamberlain Appeasement. (yes, he deserves his association with cowardace, all apeasers do) I don't get into a contest to see how many other players I can tie. You look in the sports world, do boxers, football teams, hockey teams or your fav basketball team ever negotiate a tie? NO WAY. Only poker players. Big tough stone faced poker players do it all the time. Bah! Real sportsmen enter a constest to win. What does it do to ones competitve spirit and competive confidence to avoid a win/lose decision? I think it hurts your game on many levels. I know I'm getting off track here. Suffice it to say, you can use online time to work on various aspects of your game and get comfortable in all of them.

Dave

PS, I hope someday to be faced with a chop offer over life changing money to really put my foundation to the test. ;-) To me it just seems silly when a negotitation maybe changes your payout $100 or so to chop. For the most part I think it's chickening out. It's saying "I don't think I can play well here". It's a big neon sign. The players that do this (I know I'm offending 80% of them) probably never will learn to be comfortable 4-3 handed or head up. It's like a giant relief to get in the money and that's as far as they dare go. What kittens.........