Mrs. Fly and I have been busy sobbing and watching soap operas, so we haven't seen a lot of movies.  We saw GI Joe the other day, and I was pleasantly not disappointed.  In fact, that was one of the best "terrible" movies I've seen.  The special effects were pretty good, and I didn't laugh at any of the many cliche movie moments.  I give it a solid amputated thumbs up.

We also finally saw Avatar.  I can see why that movie did well.  The CGI is pretty impressive and the story is good.  Altho I also enjoyed it when I *first* saw it - when it was called Dances with Wolves!  Dumb Bear?  Good Trade.  Never saw Pocahontas because it looks like a chick flick, where you sit around and cry.  O wait...

POKER

So PM commented in my blog yesterday that I should not become a mole man.  Not sure if it's from watching Avatar, but I'm not only going to be one of them, I'm going to be their leader!!!

Meh...  I'm sure this confidence and exuberance will wear off in a few weeks after I get repeated ass-rapings from FTOPs.  So I'm going to enjoy it now, baby!!!

Anyway, since most of you guys are cash game players, and FTOPs is upon us, I will post some basic tips for cash game players:

* As stacks get shorter, you no longer need to open raise more than 2.5x (it seems like 2.25x is "std").  Also 3betting "pot" is retarded - 2.5x-ish should be sufficient (also, assuming you're not pot-committed, the guy's not a station, position, etc.).  This is especially true as steals and resteals become more common.  Postflop, you really don't need to bet that much more than 50-60% pot as a standard.  In general, to bet any more pre or post is literally lighting money on fire.

* We got rid of short stackers a while back, but you really need to know shoving ranges in late position, as well as how to factor in fold equity.  I really like HoldemViewer for raw equity numbers, but All In Expert is more intuitive and ShortStackStratgy Calculator isn't bad either.  You will be shocked at how many situations are such that you need to shove ATC.  Also, you should know Sklansky-Chubukov or Bill Chen's jam or fold numbers, but a lot of times, raise / folding will be more profitable, especially vs nits.  SNG Wizard is considered a must for post-tourney analysis (so you can learn where you passed up EV).  TBH, I haven't used it yet, but it's on the radar.

* Look for opportunities to steal and resteal as much as you can.  The difference between winning and losing a tournament is not whether your KK runs into AA, it's whether you have the guy covered WHEN your KK runs into AA.  One of my problems before was that I was playing too tight.  Granted, there are enough tournament donks out there where waiting for the nuts to get paid off isn't a horrible strategy.  But if you are indeed better poker players, you shouldn't be hesitant to play postflop with them.  A side benefit is that when you have most of the table covered, people are more likely to fold to you.

I only put down the three most basic tips for cash game players, but maybe I'll write more tips in a later post.