seeing the light on agressive play.

[BigDaddyFish]

take a look at these two hands. one is played aggressively and the other passively.

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t15 (9 handed)

MP3 (t745)
CO (t820)
Button (t710)
SB (t725)
Hero (t845)
UTG (t1265)
UTG+1 (t1600)
MP1 (t755)
MP2 (t535)

Preflop: Hero is BB with Q/images/graemlins/spade.gif, Q/images/graemlins/club.gif.
UTG folds, UTG+1 calls t15, MP1 calls t15, MP2 folds, MP3 folds, CO calls t15, Button calls t15, SB folds, <font color="CC3333">Hero raises to t110</font>, UTG+1 calls t95, MP1 calls t95, CO calls t95, Button folds.

Flop: (t465) 2/images/graemlins/spade.gif, 8/images/graemlins/heart.gif, 6/images/graemlins/diamond.gif <font color="blue">(4 players)</font>
<font color="CC3333">Hero bets t150</font>, UTG+1 folds, <font color="CC3333">MP1 raises to t300</font>, CO folds, Hero calls t150.

Turn: (t1065) Q/images/graemlins/heart.gif <font color="blue">(2 players)</font>
Hero checks, <font color="CC3333">MP1 bets t345 (All-In)</font>, Hero calls t345.

River: (t1755) 3/images/graemlins/heart.gif <font color="blue">(2 players, 1 all-in)</font>

Final Pot: t1755

Results in white below: <font color="white">
Hero shows Qs Qc (three of a kind, queens).
MP1 shows 6h Jh (flush, queen high).
Outcome: MP1 wins t1755. </font>
and this one:

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t15 (10 handed)

BB (t770)
UTG (t640)
UTG+1 (t740)
UTG+2 (t785)
Hero (t695)
MP2 (t1265)
MP3 (t950)
CO (t670)
Button (t770)
SB (t715)

Preflop: Hero is MP1 with 9/images/graemlins/diamond.gif, 3/images/graemlins/heart.gif.
<font color="CC3333">UTG raises to t30</font>, UTG+1 folds, UTG+2 folds, Hero folds, MP2 folds, MP3 folds, CO calls t30, Button folds, SB calls t20, BB folds.

Flop: (t105) 8/images/graemlins/diamond.gif, Q/images/graemlins/club.gif, T/images/graemlins/diamond.gif <font color="blue">(3 players)</font>
SB checks, <font color="CC3333">UTG bets t15</font>, CO calls t15, <font color="CC3333">SB raises to t105</font>, <font color="CC3333">UTG raises to t610 (All-In)</font>, CO folds, SB folds.

Final Pot: t835

Results in white below: <font color="white">
No showdown. UTG wins t835. </font>

one of these players took down a smallish pot, but lived to play again. the other took a chance and was caught.

which is the smarter player?

[greg nice]

well i think you know you shouldnt have checked the turn when you made your set and the 4-flush showed up. by better here or by betting more on the flop you could have taken down the pot.

[Dominic]

You played the Queens all wrong, post-flop.

Mistake #2: Your flop bet wasn't enough...it screamed weakness - AK - and that's why MP1 raises you with 2nd pair. Okay, fair enough...but then you make...

Mistake #2: You failed to re-raise MP1 after he raises you. You should've put him all-in right here. Naturally, he lays it down. Okay, but you can still recover here, until you make...

Mistake #3: You check the turn when a Q hits and you make a set. Now I'm not saying he wouldn't call, but at least you would've given him the opportunity of folding if you had moved him all-in here. Instead, you chose to slow-play. Okay, this one isn't nearly as bad as the first two mistakes - a lot of people would check here in the hopes of getting the other guy to commit everything - you really can't put him on a backdoor door flush draw - but it should've been at least a thought...

Anyway...being aggressive would've won you that first pot, no problem.