Sorry for such a long response as I just kinda noted a few things in this ad-hoc post. If you are a player, then just post questions as you see fit. Within these posts, I don't advertise, note affiliates, etc...I'm not selling classes, tout, and on and on. There is no charge except your time and effort. I do provide previous materials I've written and gathered. I'll even build a guide tailor madfr for a specific person. I enjoy playing of course, but writing, discussing, posting... especially players new to the game, or like several students I have that have been playing poker over 40 years and playing Hold'em over 10 years, you'd a thought over time they'd improve a little by accident (lol). My materials are previous guides and books I wrote while I was teaching and playing 24/7. I do play and make money, but unfortunately many of my students were hurt in September 2006 when they added the The SAFE Port Act which cause a drop of over 90% of U.S. players and the demise of many poker sites including the biggest site, PartyPoker.
That's where I was training players to play a minimum of 8 hands simultaneously (using atleast two 22" screens or larger, depended on the graphics card and resolution adjustment) of mostly limit hold'em (at the the time the easy game to teach and the most common) with limits on average of $10-20 or $20-40 and playing 6-max tables. Most students averaged one and the very best were at two big bets per hour per table. Also, never play 8 tables or more at $5-10 or $15-30 because the small blind should be 50% of the large blind (not 33%, 40%, 66%). Using the standard format made it an easier and more of a simple mathematical game (good for playing against bad players), where using a 2/3s blind made it correct for bad players to call raises from the small blind more often with weaker hands. At the $5-10, many sites used a 40% small blind, which punishes bad play from the small blind. Many students after playing online and learning fundamentals played four $10-20 high speed 6-max tables. I also urged many players to get a stat hand tracker, practice using my starting hand raking charts, and very importantly taking breaks before the 90 minute mark, clear your head and then in seconds be focused.
Live game action should be played 3-chip 6-chip or 4-chip 8-chip. One reason is the pots always seem large (more chips, same amount). This is great for lower stake games where many players don't count or know the amount in the pot, they just see a lot of chips. Say you are playing $10-20 limit, they should be using the $2.50 (usually pink) chips, not $5 (red) chips. The 4-chip 8-chip amount might seem excessive to player more familiar with online, but you will see the effect it has. Now back to 3-chip 6-chip structure, called the action game cause the blind is 2/3s the big blind. Now all the players know that it is almost another automatic big blind. For instance say you have 3 limpers and you are the small blind, assuming that the big blind will not raise and you look down and have 73 (seven of spades & three of hearts), you are getting 14-1 on your money at the smallest price possible.
A Full Tilt Poker commercial came on while I been typing this brief (LOL) post. I understand that it's advertising, and meant to be dramatic, and that once your online playing at their site that it's suppose to be just like real live brick and mortar poker rooms. There are a few commercials that make me wonder who wrote them and not what they are trying to imply, but how the pieces in certain commercials fit into online poker. The one I just saw was with Jennifer Harman. She has pocket Kings and then an Ace flops and you are suppose to be hearing her thoughts. "Speak to me buddy. Give me something. There it is. I guess you paired the Ace. Hard to let this go, but when you're beat, you're beat. We play at Full Tilt Poker dot com." I've played with Jen and I know she is an excellent player (as does the poker world). For her to get a physical tell online against a guy she can't see.... SHE IS THE MAN (no pun intended)!LOL- Take it down a notch. I think the million dollar pots last month would have made a great commercial all by itself. Reality is not only stranger than fiction, but often more entertaining!