thanks bigs for the correction on the terminology,
and your explaination, i will take this on board and hopefully do better in the tornaments
PS, i consistently win on ring games and have little or no luck on MTT, so i build up my money on ring games to try and crack a torny, im sure i play the same way. but out of 10 tornaments i have only ended up on the pay table once. any tips?

I'm the opposite I have made more at MTT than ring games. I play only NLHE: low blind ring or low buy in MTT. I am still a novice but I can spend about 8 hrs. a day playing, studing etc. and I keep learning and making mistakes. I think it will always be that way.

I have had times of good luck and bad. I find managing your luck (good or bad) is very important. And in MTT the good the bad and the ugly will come around.

In low buy in MTT I first size up the table. Early on there are too many players betting on weak hands, going all in, bluffing etc... So I'm very carefull of beting even with good hole cards especially if I am out of position. However if I have postion with good cards I will be more agressive.

When the blinds are small and no one is raising too much this is usually a good time to take more chances on your hole cards. You won't loose as many chips. And you have much to gain.

As the blinds increase I become more selective with the hole cards that I stay in with. Because there may still be a few too loose players. But once the overly loose guys have been knocked out things will settle down.

Also many players will size you up as too tight so when you do make a nice bet it makes them think you may have a better hand than you actually do.

One thing that I've noticed is many players who build up a decent stack early on and then loose some of their stack start playing different, kinda semi-tilting. I can tell they are discouraged, mad ....

Last week I finished 7th in a 1200 plus MTT after being down to 1100 chips at level 5. So I have learned not to panic when I get low. Just be more patient and selective.

The best thing I have learned is DON"T PANIC.

The pressure is on when the blinds are building and your stack is shrinking. I've gone so far as to put a piece of post it on my monitor covering the amount of my chip stack so that I will not be overly influenced by it's size.

However not considering you stack can be costly at times. I missed making the money one time (by 1) by going all in and loosing only to realize had I just folded I would have made my entry back and a small amount more. Another time I would have made the next pay level up but I missed that by just 1 finishing place too.

I know that many pros say I play to win and not just finish in the money. That may be true but I am not a pro and I finish in the money in MTT more often than not. That is my game as of now. As I progress I know I will change my game play and strategy. I have already moved up and am doing nicely.

I have a small list attatched to my monitor it reads:
Watch 4 staight
" " Flush
" " Slow play
DDAS
Don't Do Anything Stupid

As I said before I am still a novice but what I have learned and what I have done has worked very well for me so far and I thank everyone here at FTR for that.