Unlike many of you, I am embarrassed to say that after my first 25k hands I was a breakeven poker player. I'd have big swings of being up huge only to give it all back, then go up again, just to give it back like a yo-yo. This continued until I finally learned to fold the 2nd best hand.

Learning to read your opponent is critical to this. For example, here's a hand I won against an opponent at $100 Prima; I'll give you my thoughts if I had been the villain.

Villain in SB Q[d] 8[d] (full stack)
Hero in BB Q[h] 5[d] (full stack)
1 Limper (medium stack)

Flop Q[c] Q[s] 4[s] (pot=$3.50). Villain leads for $2. Hero calls and limper folds.
Turn 5[h] (pot = $7.5) check/check
River 3[d] (pot = $7.5) Villain leads with $6. Hero raises all-in $129.47. Villain calls and loses.

If I were Villain Thoughts (Old Wrong Way)--"I'm in the SB with trips but a flush draw. I'll lead. Okay that other guy called so he must be on the flush draw. (River) I'll lead to build a pot. The flush missed so I must be good. Wait he raises me all-in?? WTF? Well, he IS a LAG, I have trips with no real draw, and the chances of him having the other Q are pretty slim. He's gotta be bluffing. I'm calling. Yuck."

If I Were Villain Thoughts (New Correct Way)--"Okay I have trips but I need to protect aganist the flush draw. Hmm, he called. What hand would call there? Just about anything is possible since he checked in the BB. (River) He's raising me all-in? Yuck. Well let's see. I bet strong on the river, told him I had the Q, and he's not scared. I have a real good hand, but for someone to raise me all-in, they probably have a Q, and the only hands I'm beating with a Q are Q6,Q7,Q2 losing to all the rest. It's not worth the risk here."

LESSON--
1) Be carefull playing with your entire stack (esp. calling an all-in) with the near nuts as you could likely have the 2nd best hand.
2) Always, always put your opponent on a hand and make sure that hand matches his behavior.
3) If you are going to play for your stack, it's best to fight on a battleground of your chosing (i.e., you push instead of calling a push). You want the high ground on that battlefield (i.e. good odds). In the aforementioned example, villain was down in the river looking up at the cannons and at best was not as good as a coin flip. Pass.

nice post.

Damn I need to start pushing more with my boats. Less value betting, more pushing! I never think they'll call.