new to online poker, help

I won a $5, 200 player tournament last night that won me a seat at a $100.00 buy in tourny tonight. I'm new ( started 3 days ago ) to online poker but have played live poker for 5 years or so & consider myself to be a decent player. The first 3 online tournaments I played in was a learning experience, in live games I tend to be aggressive, bluff & play not so stellar cards sometimes. Well it seems that online that is not an option, the 1st few tournys I kept calling the BB with hands like K,J suited Ace, 10 suited, pair of 7's etc & 99 outa 100 times someone would go all-in. I'd lay down my hand & someone ( or sometimes 2 or 3 people would call ) & I'd see..
Dipshit #01 shows Q, 4 ( not suited )
Dipshit #02 shows A, 7 ( not suited )
Dipshit #03 shows 4, 4

Wow I think to myself these guys are crazy


I finally catch a monstor hand A,A someone calls all in ahead of me I call they flip K,7 & catch a straight to the king! ugh

The tourny that I won last night I played tight as hell & just happened to get lucky that my good hands didnt get outdrawn.

Can I expect this kind of play in the $100 tourny, I cant afford to play in those normally so I guess I'm stuck with the idiots ( or people that have alot more $$ than me & can afford to lose a 5 or 10 tourny in 1st 3 hands )

Also anyone know the odds of catching a flush ( spades ) King high with only 3 other spades on the board & losing to an Ace high flush?
This happened to me twice within the span of 5 hands

Welcome to the wonderful world of online poker, and welcome to Cardschat as well.

First off, congratulations on your win. I wish you luck in the main event.

As you'll find out, the normal pattern in online poker is that that type of loose behavior gets whittled out as the levels increase. In low limit games and MTT's, you'll see uncommonly aggressive behavior. As the buy-in level goes up, a more normal style of play comes around.

If you have the time, there are some good threads on online poker play in our archives ( you can search for a topic on the blue bar on the top of the page) and hopefully you'll get some advice you can use. The most basic thing to pay attention to online (provided you have the basics of poker in general down) is watching betting patterns and how much time they use in doing so. They are about the only reads that you can pick up on.

Again, good luck!

Excellent first post rep+

Congrats on you first online win, to succeed in large MTT's is very difficult, you need to pick some premium hands to get involved in earlier on because the likelyhood of getting called down is very high. As the blinds increase however your "bluffing" style becomes more of an asset, the one thing you cant let happen is getting chipped away to nothing.

Good luck, let us know how you get on. If you have any interseting hands for anyalsis feel free to post them.

1) Maybe. Depends on the site and how many players won their seat. Those who won their seat may play crazier than those who pay $100. In any case, you've already found out that tight & steady "wins the race".

2) Try this for your odds question:

http://www.cardschat.com/poker-odds-calculator.php

Good luck in the tourney!

Thanks for the advice & words of encouragement.

I also placed tenth ( in the money! ) out of 150 in a $30 buy in tourny after winning the $5 tourny. The top 20 places were paid. At the time there were 30 or so people left, the blinds were 300,600 I had 9600 chips & the average stack was around 4000. I was playing really tight, avoiding fights with the big stacks & picking on the little stacks just trying to ride it out till I was in the money. It was my big blind & I got A,Q of hearts, a small stack limped in & then a guy at the table ( who had been playing super aggressive ) raised 1500 or so, ( he had 6000 chips at the time ) everyone dropped & I reraised 4500, the limper drops the other guy calls ( putting him all in ) & he flips over K hearts, 7 clubs! He wins the hand when a K comes on the turn, of course. GRRRRRRR Luckily I caught some nice cards after that debacle & was able to recover to come in the money.

When I got done with this marathon poker session I realized it was 4 am & I had to work in 4 hours, ouch. Also I got an email from Paradise Poker telling me that the tournament I won the seat too starts tonight at 12:45 AM! I thought it was 12:45 PM sat lol, I guess I must of been tired when I signed up. Looks like I'm gonna be a zombie at work again tommorrow unless I get bounced out early.

Sorry about the pointless rambling it just that when I signed up I took $100 ( playing $1,$2 no limit ) & turned it into $340, lost it all on 1 hand & then promptly lost another 300 to a combination of bad luck, bad playing & tilting out. I was really pissed off I took 1 day off & said I'll deposit 100 more & thats it. I plan on playing 25c/50c pot limit & rebuilding my bankroll & hopefully use my winning to finance my tournament play. Wish me luck! ( i'll need it )