A New Strategy

[CDNMAN 42]

As the title indicates I am seeking somewhat of a change in Freeroll and MTT strategy. For the past 6 months I have been experiencing a strange, recurring pattern. In almost every tournament I enter. On various sites. I usually jump out to an early lead and on a lot of occasions I end up very close to the final table but then just like clockwork it all falls apart...I start losing hands ,Hands which at pre flop are considered Premium hands, like AA KK AK etc and in most cases I am knocked out. This has happened so frequently that I am now sitting out at the end stages of tourneys just to get ITM...An example of one occurrence, throughout the tourney I amassed over 65,000 chips and when we got to the FT no one had more than 20,000 chips other than me..then it happened..AA lost AQ suited lost, 99 lost and so on. and no I did not make the final 4. really!! So what are my choices to end this misery other than quitting playing? Heck this is even happening in League play anytime I am in the final 15 it is guaranteed I will get a great starting hand will end up jammed and gone...Any suggestions to a type of change in my play would be welcomed...Thanks

 

[63burner]

You are right, give poker a rest. You are playing right, probability and strategy-wise. You are just a victim of bad random variance. To get off to a great start, your opponents had the bad luck, and you were the beneficiary of good luck. Stay the course, the d random variance will come and go, good and bad. Good poker strategy will win out in the long run. Nobody is immune to short run bad runs, it's the nature of the game. Everybody has a bad beat story, hope your variance runs for you, not against you.

 

[SpanRmonka]

If I remember rightly, you are a pretty aggressive player, not excessivelyor anythng, but dangerous. Maybe an adjustment is needed in later stages where you play more conservatively and maybe more passively. I'm not suggesting to play suboptimally, but perhaps you can turn an aggressive mentality into more of a bluff catchig passive mentality, lower the variance and maybe that will help!

 

[CDNMAN 42]

Thanks for the responses, and I agree I have to try being more conservative in the later stages. Today on WPT freeroll I was in top 5 for most of the tourney, down to 13 players left I was in 2nd place I catch QQ the player on my right jams all in for about 75% of my stack, without giving it a serious thought I called and of course his AK caught the A….from 2nd to 13th. I realize now I need to be more cautious especially in the later stages.

 

[john_entony]

As the title indicates I am seeking somewhat of a change in Freeroll and MTT strategy. For the past 6 months I have been experiencing a strange, recurring pattern. In almost every tournament I enter. On various sites. I usually jump out to an early lead and on a lot of occasions I end up very close to the final table but then just like clockwork it all falls apart...I start losing hands ,Hands which at pre flop are considered Premium hands, like AA KK AK etc and in most cases I am knocked out. This has happened so frequently that I am now sitting out at the end stages of tourneys just to get ITM...An example of one occurrence, throughout the tourney I amassed over 65,000 chips and when we got to the FT no one had more than 20,000 chips other than me..then it happened..AA lost AQ suited lost, 99 lost and so on. and no I did not make the final 4. really!! So what are my choices to end this misery other than quitting playing? Heck this is even happening in League play anytime I am in the final 15 it is guaranteed I will get a great starting hand will end up jammed and gone...Any suggestions to a type of change in my play would be welcomed...Thanks

I don't know, my win rate against you is clearly below 50%. Although I'm a plus player against a lot of other players. In your case, I would advise you to call less against tight players on the flop. Many players do not bluff against you, but play strictly according to the card. So even if you get top pair or overpair, you still lose to 2 pair or set. Even I played against you today with "QQ" when you had "K9". You had top pair on the flop with a good kicker, and if you didn't get a "K" on the turn, I would have taken your chips. That's what I'm talking about. And the second tip: play aggressively only on the turn and river. Skip the flop to look at your opponents. If no one played aggressively against you on the flop, it's very likely that they're empty. Third tip: call less tight players on the pre-flop. For the same reason: many players are sure you'll want to see the board.

 

[john_entony]

Thanks for the responses, and I agree I have to try being more conservative in the later stages. Today on WPT freeroll I was in top 5 for most of the tourney, down to 13 players left I was in 2nd place I catch QQ the player on my right jams all in for about 75% of my stack, without giving it a serious thought I called and of course his AK caught the A….from 2nd to 13th. I realize now I need to be more cautious especially in the later stages.

No, that's bad advice they gave you. Play the same way I advised you in the later stages of the tournament. Just don't listen to other advice. Play a few tournaments like I wrote and you will see your results improve.

 

[CDNMAN 42]

Thanks John I'll give it a shot