Back in the game after a few years..

Nice to see this place is still here. Was a big fan of this place and some of the regular posters.

I stopped playing a few years ago. Mainly played for fun / gambling entertainment. Any profit was quickly rolled up to the next higher stakes. Had rippyGAMBOOL syndrome and loved making people curse @ me.. Was fun, but not self-sustainable with the BR mgmt methods I used.

FF to recently, I fired up PS a few months ago and saw 240,000 people on there. My has this child grown!

Anyways - I had a lot of fun playing and would like to play a little more "seriously" this time - while still having fun. I'm looking for some advice on logistics of re-starting.

First question - Stats. Yes, No, Maybe?
Is something like PokerTracker necessary nowadays? I'm seeing a lot of online places that weren't around back then - can they give you the stats you want? In your opinion, if you're trying to be "serious" are stats via software a must?

Second Q - Build it, or buy it?
I have a roll on PS (like $65 ATM). I can add $$ to this via deposit, but I feel like building it up. IMHO, it would be get me back into the swing of things, let me see a ton of hands, see the styles of play out there now. However, I'd be playing the $1-ish tourneys. Does this make sense to do, when I can comfortably BR myself for 100 BI of $5 or $10 tourneys?

I'm asking because if I don't need to hang at those levels, and the rake is just prohibitive, then why not dep and skip to at least the $5s? I've sampled the waters a bit and I'm not seeing much skill diff vs $1 and sub $12 Ring, SnG, MTTs.

Again, my opinion is to just grind it up. Earn my way up. It will be just as fun as playing $1 as it would be playing $5, $10, $20. I figure, if I can't grind up through the micro stakes, then I need to not bother trying to be "serious", and in trying to be honest, a $65 roll isn't going to support anything but micros.

All this - as long as the rake isn't going to really hurt me. I know the micro rake is a little steep, but is it worth to buy-up to the next level if you're trying to play honest and within your limits?

---->

That's about it for the major Qs I had. The DoN tourneys are neat. I never saw anything like that until now. My first time back I started messing with them, but you lose out on the FT, SH, HU play that I totally love the most out of tourney play.

Anyways - Back in action.. Going to try to be more serious this time, but still have fun, without trying to tilt every table, every hand, every time. Being absolute nutso maniac is fun, but so is making money, and this time I'll choose the latter.

Thanks FTR and admins for still being here. I'd like to start being a student again. My eyes and ears are wide open. Time to learn and execute.

are you going to be playing cash games too? or just SnG's?
If you plan on doing FR I'd say start buying in at $2nl for now. See if you can't grind up your BR. Why deposit already when you can just play with what you got and get back into the swing of it?
Escpecially if you have never really played seriously, you can micro it and keep reading on here for now while you get a better feel for everything.

As far as software, for me, all day long. It's the only way to bring personality to your opponents. It is seriously the one major difference between online and live play. I played for years using nothing but notes and pretty much never increased my BR. Now I have been playing very seriously for the past few months and Poker's Edge has proven to be one of the greatest tools amongst all the great information I have accumulated from this site and others.

It's good to hear you are getting back into the swing of things and I wish you nothing but luck. Hope it turns out to be great fun and profitable for you.

See you at the table.....
Mason

Mason.. Part of my past low returns is cash / ring gaming. I play (say, played) them so stupid, like I'm in a tourney with increasing blinds and trying to get all of the table's chips in under an hour. It's fun to try, but often hard to do, esp when you're trying to make runs up as fast as possible.

I tried some multi-multi table FR with psycho mode off and it went well just nut farming.

I always preferred tourney to cash. Money made from tourney for me funded way over my limit stakes cash games which usually leads to the bus on variance lane.

So, you use the stats mainly for other players, or your own stats, or an even balance between both?

I def will grab one then... They seems well worth the money.

PS - It's going good though, after a few K of hands, or so.. Changing up styles a bit here and there. Time and stats will tell.

I use the HUD mostly for other players. It does help me keep my range in check as well though and that is a good part to point out. I started out as a Redfish, which is loose/passive preflop, passive postflop... I have since narrowed it down to an Elephant which is a loose/aggressive semi passive player. Soon I know it should be changing to a Rock since I have learned ALOT about starting hands.

I also preffered SnG's when I first started playing. The buy-in to win ratio is better then Cash and not as much variance as MTT... I found I could take down most micro SnG's pretty easily. But something about FR that has drawn me in big time and since I have read that it is better to focus on one game type that's what I've been doing.

And to be honest, I played a SnG the other day and I honestly think improving my cash game has improved my SnG 3fold.