Warning:
- Lengthy message
- Cliff notes are at the end

I just came back from the beautiful Canary Islands and could not play poker for what feels like an eternity; so I'm missing poker as hell, lol.

Besides finally reading HoH 3 I had some time to think about how I could improve my game, and came up with an idea.
Though I'm sure this idea is not new, but nonetheless I'm convinced it is strongly +EV as long as I can find a few fellow P5'ers who are interested in putting that idea into action together with me.

Well, it's obvious that nobody is so smart that he could figure out all the twists and secrets of poker just by himself. The truth is that everybody can considerably speed up his learning process by learning from others; be it by reading books, joining discussion boards, subscribing to training sites etc.
However, the best way to learn would be to have a private mentor which is observing your game. A skilled player could make you aware of any leaks you have, give you hints and advice how to play certain hands, and how to improve your game in general.
The problem is, that good mentors are hard to find and often take lots of money for mentoring you.

Well, during my vacation I came up with the following idea:
Why shouldn't we be our own mentors?

Just think about this: A few guys, who play a decent game and have shown some good results already, join up together to exchange experiences, observe each others game, and give each other advice what holes to plug or what moves to try.
Shouldn't this be of benefit for the people who join in?

Well, as I said most likely this idea is not new, and probably many have found their fellows or "crew" already, with whom they are exchanging advice since a long time.
If you are one of those, then congrats sir!
Unfortunately I also have to say: gg sir, but this message is not for you.

This msg is for those other skilled players, who have mostly been learning the game on their own, but now are looking to find someone to exchange advice and opinions to take their game to the next level.

You are not interested?
No problem, thanks for listening. See you at the tables!

You are interested?
Then read on.

That is me:
I have started playing poker (as Devil42 exclusively on pokerstars) in May/2005, and worked my bankroll up from a one time deposit of $50 to over 50k so far.
Most of my profit has been made in the recent months, since I have decided to take poker a bit more seriously starting from April 2007.
At present my average ROI is about 80%, and I mostly play medium buy-in MTT's with large fields of players. If I don't have enough time to play the big MTT's, then I usually will play 180/20 SNG's or turbo satellites to the Sunday Million or the Nightly Hundred Grand instead.

Usually I play rebuys ranging from $3r to $20r, freeze-outs from $20 to $50, and if possible also the Sunday Warmup / Sunday Million, because the fields there are much weaker than in any other high buy-in tournament. I'm still lacking a big score in the Warmup/Million but I've finished ITM often enough to make them +EV for me, including a 28th and 21st place finish.
Sooner or later I hopefully will final table one of these; continuously working on my game should improve my chances to do so.

As for online times, weekdays I'm logged in at Pokerstars from ~7pm to ~2am European time (that's 1pm to 8pm eastern time). On weekends (Fri, Sat, Sun) from ~5pm to ~7am CET, which equals 11am to 1am EST.
Of course I cannot play all the time (I also have a daytime job), so these times are my max playing schedule. Also I'm taking off some days every week, but my favourite days to play are Sat/Sun/Tue/Wed/Fri.

As for playing styles I can play pretty much anything from a complete nit to a full-blown maniac. But the most success I got so far by playing TAG in the beginning of a tournament and more and more LAGging it up in the later stages - as long as my chip stack and opponents allow me to do so.
Changing gears in different stages of a tournament, and adapting to different situations/tables is something I want to focus on and improve more in future.

For what type of people am I looking for?

I'm looking for people who have some poker experience and have shown at least a few good results already.
Your playing style is irrelevant, as long as it has been making you money I'm interested in an experience exchange with you.
This means you should have a ROI that's well positive for the recent months, and you should be bankrolled deep enough to play mid stakes MTTs on a regular schedule.
Your playing times should overlap with mine at least somewhat, so we could rail each other whilst playing live on Pokerstars and exchange opinions/instant advice on MS messenger.
You should be SERIOUS about improving your game, and WILLING TO SHARE your advice and openly talk about poker/MTT strategy.
Many people are holding back at the forums (for obvious reasons), but we should be fully open and helpful to each other in our private discussions to improve both our games to the max.
THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT REQUIREMENT OF ALL!!

Mainly I'm interested in discussing MTT play, because this is the type of game I play the most. Cash games feel a little boring to me, as do SNG's, so you should be focused on MTT's as well.
The only exception would be 180/20's and (turbo) satellites which I play whenever there's not enough time to go for the big MTT's.

As for the kind of advice exchange we should have, I'm particularly thinking of two ways how to learn from each other (but am open to any other suggestions):

The first would be railing each other during online play and exchanging hole cards via messenger as long as we are not playing at the same table.
The observer's benefit would be to get an opportunity to watch a different playing style from another strong player, and the active player could get quick feedback on his game from the observer, who could point out any leaks he observes, and can give his opinion how he would have played a hand in a certain situation.
If you like railing people as much as I do, then hopefully this will be ok for you.

The other way to learn should be that we exchange hand histories of whole tournaments, and give comments on key hands in that tournament.
If you are a subscriber to PXF, then you have access to probably the best hand history replayer you can get, otherwise you can use Poker Tracker or other 3rd party software.

I hope that discussing the key hands in the context of a whole MTT is better than discussing the hand isolated (such as is usually done here on P5's). Because if you analyze a hand you have to consider the whole situation the hand has been played in; such as the type and stage of the tournament, reads on other players, tendencies of the table and so on. All this can make a huge difference.

People who are only looking to get cheap tips/advice without the ability/willingness to bring in their own profound advice and experiences - please GTFO.
I'm looking for a straight forward, candid exchange of ideas with someone who is just as much interested in GIVING as RECEIVING the best advice possible.

I'm sure there are leaks in my game that other people can point out to me and that there are playing styles / strategies / moves I've never tried so far, and this is what I want to learn.
In return I can offer some skills and tricks you might not be aware of yet, and I'm willing to share all my experiences with you.

If you are interested, then let's come on and write a few lines about you.
Hopefully we will get a few people to join together, to bring out the best in our game and do some severe ass kicking in future! ;)

Thanks for listening,

- Devil42

PS: Please apologize my poor English; it's not my first language.

Cliff notes:
- I'm looking for people who want to share MTT experience and advice.
- The idea is to observe each others game online (communicating via messenger) and occasionally exchanging hand histories of whole MTT's with discussion of key hands of that MTT.
- I'm interested in mid stakes MTT's on Pokerstars; rebuys as well as freeze-outs.
- My ROI is 80%, net winnings are 40k this year so far, and I consider myself being a fairly strong player who is always willing to improve.
- If you think you are in a similar situation then write something about you and see if we can get something going!

for real fool. liljiggilo03 is my aim im down for hh reviews holla. late

I'm interested as well...bef99hwk on aim and bef99hwk@hotmail on msn

obv brag post about a 50k bankroll...

^^lol

Devil42 FTW

sign me up

joker15801.............on stars

I try to explain what I mean:

First, how did I come to this idea?
Often, after having played my share of MTT's, I would stay online on pokerstars; not to play, but to rail (ie watch) good players.
Now I thought, instead of railing other players - whose hole cards I cannot see - why not rail a player whom I know, who can tell me his hole cards (on MSN messenger) and thus I can see how HE is playing and learn about his playing style whilst knowing his hole cards?

I do not intend to talk whilst a hand is still live, because we should make decisions on our own. But after a key hand, I could give my opinion on how he played the hand, no matter if I think he played good or bad.
At other times that player could watch me playing, "see" my hole cards, and give me his opinion.

The idea is that strong players learn from each other's strengths and weaknesses, by watching a different playing style and by getting instant feedback.

Hope this clarifies it.

PM me to harness the power of the vigminraise

I think something like this is very interesting even though I'm on the very low-end of microstakes play (5-25 tournies). I'm way up on Full Tilt and pretty down on stars, for a slight profit total. I'd be willing do this wth some people though as I alway seem to play better when I'm discussing with people whats going on instead of just reacting (which I make about 70% of my mistakes due to making a quick reaction thats entirely wrong).

If anybody wants to talk/dicusss, whatever else my s/n on AIM is jbbutters2020.

I dont really like your classification of people as "applicants"... But regardless I would love to gain some more poker friends to talk strategy with on a more immediate level, via AIM etc. I'm a winning tournament player and am definatly looking to step things up to the next level.

I play any Rebuy 3$-$20
I play any Freezeout 10$-75$

Typically, whilst im at school (I'm home for winter break now) I will start at 8pm EST, and play any tournaments that fall within that range of buyins on FTP/Bodog/stars, up until about 10pm. This normally gives me a decent number of tournaments for the night.

For the next month or so over winter break, and during the summer i will normally have a similar schedule, but i'll start my tournaments from 10pm-12am because im busier.

I think i've got some valuable assets as a player, I've made the final 2 tables of the nightly 3r on stars 5x in 5 months, with 2 wins (only palyed it about 35x). I have a few other decent sized FT's and wins as well.

MY aim name is Nickc011, if anyone, not just the OP wants to talk poker i'm always open. I think peer review, so to speak, would be a great asset to my game.

team mhrep

^^

ultimate crew

BigQueso...do you need an AUSSIE member????

Coming off a break from poker, due to school, would love to talk poker sometime hit me up on AIM Spictacular120.

I would love to talk to you and share some perspective. I am relatively inexperienced in mtts. I have made 65k the past 6 months playing primarily heads up. However, of the few tournaments I have played I had a cash of $5400 in a 25k guarantee tournament this week. My aim is Knapp2themax