I have A, 5 suited diamonds. Playing $2/$4 NL, 6 handed. First player raises to $12 and everyone folds, I call.

Flop is 5, 9, 5 rainbow. He bets out $24 and I call. Turn is a 4. He checks, I check. River is a 2 and there are no flush possibilities. At this point I put him on JJ or better. Possibly A, 9. He bets out $75 and I reraise to $180. He pushes me all in and I call. He has pocket 9's, flopped a full house. But would you guys have called. I was pot committed after I reraised. I had about $527 at the table.

What range would you put him on? Any advice would be appreciated.

Hello everyone or to those who decide to click on this blog. I have been away from this site for almost a year now because I took a break from poker. Not because I was in a slump or anything, but just was focused on many other aspects of my life. I got a new and better job compared to my last one and I do inside sales in Silicon Valley. I also just bought my own condo and am completely stoked. It has a pool and everything! :)

However, now I am ready to enter the tournament circuit online seriously. I just started poker again yesterday at Ultimate Bet and won $190 in a $1/$2 cash NL game. I have always been more of a cash player as I feel the thrill is there more and things can instantly change for better or worse.

I have dabbled in tournaments in the past and as you can see, they are minor, but I do place well in some and have 10 cashes. But I have a decent bankroll right now which is at about $800. The reason why I am writing this is because I openly admit, I am not a great tourney player and have alot to learn and in regards to switching gears, passive versus aggressive depending on the stage of a tourney. I take cash games very seriously, but tourneys since the buys in's tend to be small like $20 or lower, by patience grows thin.

So I am writing this to you tourney players on advice. What do you learn along the way? Is it just practice over and over? Do you do better at higher buy in's vs lower buy in's? Any advice would be welcomed. I am not looking to be a pro, or to pay by bills with poker as I do all that with my job, this is just for satisfaction and to get eventually get into bigger buys in for both cash and tourneys.

Thanks guys and girls in advance for your help!

Dammage81

Hello Everyone,

I just want to say that I am very excited to finally join the Pocket Fives community. I have been playing poker for about 4 years and this year was the first year I played in the WSOP. I had a blast and plan to be back each year.
I look forward to reading your posts, blogs and articles and look forward to contribute as much as I can to this community. I hope to score my first 4 figure score soon in a tournament, so please root for me ;)

Anyway just wanted to take this time to introduce myself and hopefully I will see some of you guys on the felt soon.

Dammage81