Like I said, I prefer a "chatty" thread to anything else since you are able to look at specifics in what I'm talking about and pick things out that help more than just a blank "how to/why to" article, although I'm reading those like crazy too.

I wish I could remember where I read the article but it was very close to what you was saying. Lederer said that the more he bet into a pot 2/3, 3/4, pot-sized, generally meant that he wanted the guy out of the pot and was looking to find out where he stood. So a call/raise would make him slow down and really think on things. Yet if he seriously hit he would end up betting 1/4,1/3, 1/2 (depending on the other guy of course) to maximize profits.

- the guy "slumming" from the 5/10 NL games is a friggin liar. sorry. nobody drops from 1000NL to 2NL, just for fun. he is either a total degen (arent we all really? lol), or someone about to go busto because he SUCKS at bankroll management. besides, if he really was a 5/10 player, he would never admit it at a 2NL table...he would be much too smart for that, imo.
I figured as much with that player, besides the fact that dropping down to that level just doesn't bring in the money longterm from the way people play, he was spewing a lot of lingo in the chat too, talking about what people do with what hands and in what positions. I'm pretty sure that doing that is -EV. This last week has been riddled with internet issues and it was another outage which killed that swing, I was just about to log back into UB and try to regain some of my losses when it crashed. It takes me a while to recover from a swing+tilt, I pretty much blew a BR on Party by doing a "Mouth".

As for the MTTs, yeah that's one of the issues. I try not to take too many risks, another Lederer (him or Daniel Negraneu I think) point was that the biggest jump in money besides FT was going from the bubble to ITM. But it's tough when I see a lot of people opening up and throwing their chips around and I'm not catching anything. When I DO make moves, I find myself against players who seem to have seen my aggressive moves before and side-step me into a corner for most of my stack.

Most of the regs I'm seeing are either SnG/MTT junkies who buyin for $.10 a time to do a few double ups so that they can play another $.50 SnG or they are the only ones to play with a decent stack (and in my mind are where most of my money is going to come from). I'll stick to ABC and keep your points about the c-bet. I tend to do it as a way of finding out where I stand on a dangerous board. Is this the wrong usage of c-betting? What is the actual goal for a proper c-bet?

I see you mention PT. I'm definitely aiming to get it as soon as possible because of the way everyone talks about it's importance. I do have a couple of questions though:

*Would it be best for me to get PT before I move up to the next level or would I be able to get it as I'm moving up to 10NL/25NL?

*How much should I focus on the HUD stats. I don't mind the extra info because I'm aiming to win long-term as much as possible but I don't want to become reliant on PT either since there's no "HUD" in live play.

Chopper, your thoughts and replies are seriously helping out my thinkage and poker is definitely a 6-inch-game (the 6-inches between our ears). I think threads like this should be more common so that others can learn as much as possible. Two other issues I notice I'm having is playing AQ/KQ. These two seem to be my toughest hands to play post flop and I end up getting myself into more trouble than I know they are worth. What would you say is the "best" way of playing them at these stakes? Oh, and what type of winrate should I be aiming for to show I'm winning long-term? Right now I'm looking at the profits after each session but I know that this will eventually drive me batty. If it helps I'm using Siknd's bankroll management spreadsheet to keep track of every session/tournie.

And anything else you think I need to learn/read/focus on I'll be happy to know. Thanks again.