Need help...(yet again)..kinda rambling

[rockythecat99]

Ok so I posted something similar here about a week or two ago but since then haven't really had time to play till this week where I played about two tourneys. I know most of you say in MTT's the cards don't mean a thing but the way you play it. Well how about when you get dealt garbage I mean complete utter trash hands.
For example the last tourney I played (pacific 30 +3), I got deal nothing for the first break. I mean nothing. No pp, no face cards. The best hand that I got was AQo while CO, a guy in front of me raises I call. SB and BB go all in so does original raiser I fold.

I made it to 130 something I think out of 600 something. The only way I made it was when I flopped the nut straight with 53s from the BB and flopping trips with 710 suited and milking those two big hands for everything they were worth.
I think I stole the blinds once.

My main question is when do I need to just go with the flow and play everything and how. I mean most of the time I am faced with multiple limpers and I don't think playing any two is optimal here, especiallly when I am short stacked.
Compared to the blinds how small should my stack be to start playing any two. 8-10BB??? I am a good cash player but it is so true what they say about cash players not being that good at tourneys. Please help thanks in advance.

[rockythecat99]

No one has any ideas for me??? I really need help with this as I am finding myself always making it past the first break without any problems even with very horrible hands yet after that being blinded away. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Paul2432]

I think your mistake is assuming that you should be going deep into the tournament every time. Sometimes you get bad cards and there is nothing you can do about it. Once your stack is under 10 BB, I would not move in with any two, but any reasonable two cards provided the situation was right. For example, K9 would be a fine hand for a steal from late position, but if someone open-raises in EP you have to fold. On the other hand if you had just three or four BB, that might be a place to take a chance.

Paul

[rockythecat99]

Thank you Paul I guess I am assuming that I can just go into the money everytime. It is just frustrating that this has been a recurring theme the past couple of tourneys. I have been playing tourneys for almost 3-4 weeks now and at first I was succesfull winning one making two final tables, placing in the money two other times. But now I have hit a wall where every single time is the same thing about 100-200 left and I am stuck with a small stack because my hands are just horrible. The past couple of times the only time I won pots was because I defended my blinds and flot straights or trips and just milked those. Again maybe my expectations are too big but when you are soo close to the money every single tourney then bad cards hit it is just disheartening.
Thanks again

[BobbyTheG]

I was having a similar run recently also Rocky. I posted here and got some great responses, just a recalibration of what I already knew but had gotten away from. One of the best posts I've seen on this is by EMarkM. Here is the link....

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Number=890506&page=3&view=co llapsed&sb=5&o=14&vc=1

I know it sounds simple, but it's a good refresher when you feel like you aren't running well.

As far as not catching cards, it does happen to all of us, but when you are very often falling just short of the money, it's due to not picking up enough small pots or stealing when possible.

In regards to not getting cards, one thing I've been doing is limping late with some marginal hands. You mentioned you've been having a lot of limpers in front of you. That's a GREAT time to limp in the first 3 or 4 rounds of the tourney. I will play hands like 97o, K4s, J9, 64s. These are trashy hands, obviously, but you can get some great implied odds when you hit them. If the blinds are 25/50, I have about 1500 in chips and am in late position with 3 or 4 limpers, I love to take a flop. A BIG caveat to this is you can't fall in love with middle pair and drop chips. Remember, you want to keep the pots smaller here unless you really hit it, then trap and stack em up.

Once the blinds go to 25/50 or 50/100, I pretty much raise 3.5x EVERYTIME in SB, button, CO if it's folded to me. You also have to have the stones to fire out again on the flop when you sense weakness.

One last way I've been picking up pots is in the BB. When I get a free play heads up with one limper and the SB (or just a limper) and the flop doesn't hit me, I'll check/call the flop if he makes a small (1/2 pot) bet. Then I'll come after him by leading on the turn. Lots and lots of times they'll be stabbing at the flop with very little and you can run them off by calling the flop and then coming out on the turn. You pick up some really nice small/mid-sized pots this way.

Hopefully this is helpful, this is pretty much the advice I got when I was in the exact same spot as you and I've been in the money 2 of my last 3 (44th out of 830, 11th out of 783). I've been running pretty well and picking up tons of little pots since I posted a few weeks ago.

This is where I would start, but someone also is right that if you get NO CARDS at all, not much you can do. I played 2 hands in the BB in an hour and a half at the Mirage one time, so I've been there also.

Good Luck.

Like I said, nothing earth shaking here, but just a good resetting of your mind to make sure you are doing everything you can to pick up small pots along the way.

[rockythecat99]

BobbytheG thank u thank u thank u... this is exactly what I was looking for. There have been times when I am the one that has fired at teh flop just to see my opponent call ,lead the turn and me folding. Thank you sooo much for these little tips. I know my game just needs a few tweaks here and there and I think your tips are going to immensely help. Thanks again

[woodguy]

Read this thread. (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Number=1478909&page=&view=&s b=5&o=)
Lots of good stuff to read there in regards to your question.

Regards,
Woodguy