Help!! Running bad in several consecutive tourneys

[PokerGoblin]

Looking for some advice on a topic that I have not found a lot of discussion on.

I don't fancy myself a great tournament player by any means. However, I do consider myself solid and I have had little problem getting into the money with decent regularity (roughly 1 in 6 MTT's on average). My tourney of choice is the $20 + 2 NL Holdem MTT's on Party. The best I have done is 21st out of 1200 (I have had a few finished of this nature) but I have never won a MTT.

At any rate, my concern is as of late I have started the lest few tourneys with such poor starting hands that I have been finding myself with about 8x the BB after about an hour and have to move in w/ a marginal hand to try to survive.

An example of this is the last tourney I entered the best hand I picked up was K-J offsuit, which I had to fold to a large preflop bet. I ended up calling an all-in bet w/ 77 with about 6 times the BB and I got knocked out.

The one before that I got AA on the very first hand and made a little, then got nothing for about 1.5 hours and got blinded off literally.

This isn't intended to be a bitch session, I know runs of bad cards happen all the time, I mostly play NL cash games and I am content to fold every hand for 3 hours if the cards dictate so... but in the tournaments I don't have that luxury. My concern is, does anyone have any advice on how to survive the early downswings so I can survive longer?

Thanks

PG

[billyjex]

When the blinds are micro compared to stack sizes, I'll limp in with alot of hands if I'm in late position and the table is fairly non-aggressive. Try to get the flop to hit you hard. Otherwise.. MTT have a very high variance. Cards happen.

[PokerGoblin]

Thanks for the post.

I agree, cards do happen. And I am by no means complaining about misfortune. I am just trying to survive a poor run of cards for a better overall showing in the tourney. On the flip side, I have had tourneys w/ awesome runs of cards early, so I am able to build a stack and play good tourney poker from there.

Yea limping in late position is about the only real answer to my question... hope to hit something and bet and hope for the best. I just have a hard time limping in w/ 8-3 offsuit or jack-4 type hands. All the tight/agressive disciplined gameplay I've tailored my game around makes me go a big rubbery one every time I consider it.

PG

[davidross]

I don't know if it makes you feel any better, but in September I went 38 straight $100 or better buy-in events in a row without cashing. I went out early, I went out on the button. Every way imaginable, bad beats, bad plays, and I thought it would never end.

It turned around eventually and I've had 2 final tables in the last week, and a few more cashes.

Patience...

[PokerGoblin]

Thanks, David

I believe you. It is just frustrating not to be able to get involved cause you are dealt 9-3 offsuit 28 consecutive hands.

PG

[Paragon]

Hey, you and me both. I am relatively new to poker and the MTT scene, but since last week I have decided to try and play the 6pm $20+$2 MTT at Party every day (if possible). I have a lot of the same questions as you probably. After two great finishes recently, I have been consistently getting knocked out around the 1st hour break. Usually it's on the best hand I had picked up so far, but naturally there was one better out there /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

Anyway, just thought I'd add you're not alone. If you really have the patience you described, I bet you'll be doing fine soon. Good luck (to us both!)

[JaBlue]

There have been a lot of tourneys where I have been completely colddecked throughout the tourney, but I still money. You don't necessarily have to get cards to finish in the money. There's a great post all about blind stealing, which is essential in MTT play. http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Number=890506&page=&view=&sb =5&o=&vc=1 It's a must read.

[Shoe]

Standard Deviation is a hell of a drug.

[PokerGoblin]

that was helpful. thank you for posting that.

[PokerGoblin]

Well, for what it's worth I just played a strong tourney and won a supersatellite to a 200k guaranteed on party tomorrow night that had 300 in it (actually I just had to finish in the top 14) . Thanks to all... the advice is much appreciated.

PG

[billyjex]

Good luck.

Tourney's are very frustrating. The one tourney I just won, 20+2 MTT on pokerroom for $700 + $110 tourney ticket, i probably played 10-13 of them with only cashing once for about my buy-in. So you figure, I was down $250-300 in investment in this tourney and bam, a win and i've more than doubled my buy-in for it. And then I play 3 tourney's today and only outlast half the field in one of them.

Crazy game!

[DVO]

"I don't know if it makes you feel any better, but in September I went 38 straight $100 or better buy-in events in a row without cashing."

David, that is just so insane.

I play one $100 PP multi a week. ( That's the poker fix I allow myself. Wife, kids, job, you know the deal.) That's almost a year without cashing.

And my wife, like all nonpoker players, has no idea about variance. She can't understand how I can lose in a 3 - hour cash game against mediocre competition....

38 weeks and she'd declare me the worst poker player ever.

[davidross]

I was thinking the same thing. Imagine going into 38 5K or 10K buyins without cashing.