[winky51]

Yup thats my feeling also. They don't think and are always finding an excuse for a push. I had to dumb down my thinking to 1 level above theirs to beat them.

EXAMPLE (b4 my big realization): One hand I raised the whole table in postion with AKo. It was a good raise to let people know I had a good hand. I did it a little expressively tossing my chips in. This guy in the SB get this "aha!" face like he realized the mystery of the universe and pushes all his chips in on a whim. Naturally my expressivness gave him an excuse to push. He wasn't short stacked so his push made no sense to me, it was 3x my raise. I thought he had a big pair like AA or KK and was prepared to fold. I took a read on him and figured out with a bit of table talk he had the middle pair. Pot was right I called (1 for 2.5 to call), he flops over 77. He wins the pot crippling me and laughs saying he already had a made hand and I was basically stupid to call because he knew I had 2 overs. My playfulness gave this guy a reason to push after I raised 5 limpers. I wouldnt take a chance with 88 after 5 limpers and a raiser.
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Even at a $350 multi I was amazed at the UNBELIEVABLE moronicness (is that even a word?) of their play. I severly overestimated these players and their abilities. They were actually WORSE than the $150 and $200 tournament players in a sense that they pushed with all sorts of stupidity. I had the feeling the difference was that these were players that had money and didn't care about losing it. The $150-$200 tournaments are reasonable buy-ins average people would risk for a chance at big money. The structure is good too. The average player isn't whipping out $350 to play a tournament so I believe I got more of the "rich kid" or "rich guy" symdrome. Trying to prove something by buying into a $350 tournament. It was my 1st one. Was cold, sick from the smoke, I played like crap and lost to idiots... but really it was my own fault.

EXAMPLE (here is one that blew my mind by these $350 players):
At my table I had 1 good player, 8 idiots, and myself. usually I am nice and say "poor players" or "nuggets" but these guys were morons so I say "idiots". UTG limps, BUT raises, SB reraises.... UTG pushes. BUT thinks and folds (he was a decent player) SB calls. UTG shows 55 SB shows AA. WTF? Raise, reraise and he pushes with 55, WOW!

I got knocked out later by a guy calling a bet and a raise (by me) with middle pair on the board and medium kicker, no draws for 1/2 his chips.

Now I am better prepared for the $350 tournament.