Cold decks

[Cactus Jack]

This is a subject I haven't seen much discussion on.

Lately, I've been having a really tough time getting traction. Just hand after hand with one card a three or six, or KQo UTG. You know the drill. It's really hard to maintain your discipline and your interest. And your stack dwindles.

How do you veterans of hundreds of MTTs handle it, when the card bus never stops at your seat? Just shrug it off and say, "that's poker?" (Probably.) I'm not whining, hopefully, but it's the most frustrating part of the game to me.

CJ

(When the cards do finally come, I'm getting crushed by bad beats, but that's another story. Or is it?)

It's been a very tough week.

[Cactus Jack]

*bump*

Nobody? Everybody just want to talk about hands you get, and not about when you don't?

I must be the only one who goes through these.

CJ

Not talking smack at all, but as most 2+2ers will see it, this just reeks of a badbeat post.

Now, honestly, I would just push through it. If you're having a bad run, it also helps me if I read the forums while Im playing... that way, Im not just sitting there trying to convince myself that the A9o is raiseable from UTG+1....

also, if you start actively taking notes abuot players, I mean going nuts on it, with at least the two players to your left and right, time will fly by, plus you'll find you can read those chumps like a book.

I rambled... oh well.

[tdomeski]

I've been going through the same thing past 10 days or so. .When I get in with a 60/40 I lose, when I get in with 80/20 I lose. .it is very frustrating. Key thing to remember is if you constantly put yourself in the position to play a big pot late in a tourney with a 60-80% edge you will end up allright in the end.

Sometimes it can be very tough mentally to think to yourself "Man, I need 2 million chips to win this tournament". .as you sit with 3K in chips 2 hours into it.

Just play every hand to the best of your ability, maximizing your equity. Focus on making the "right" play, and the results will catch up with you. Understand that it is very possible to go a few months without hitting something big (yes, the cards can be that bad).

In a big tournament with a lot of chips (like the $45K rebuy on Stars) I go in with the strategy of playing a 100K pot then going to bed. If I can play a 100K, win or lose, I'm happy. . .FWIW the times I win that pot I feel like I can do some real damage. . If I lose, I go to bed, wake up next day, and get back on the horse.

Taking a few days off to get drunk with buddies helps confidence too.

Good luck getting through it.

[Cactus Jack]

[ QUOTE ]
Not talking smack at all, but as most 2+2ers will see it, this just reeks of a badbeat post.


[/ QUOTE ]

True, but most 2+2ers only push, too, so that discounts what most would say. This isn't about bad beats. This is about not getting any cards at all to play. When the deck is so cold you're getting T3 and 84o, it's very hard not to get anxious, bored, or stupid. I have no problem with the last one--some say I start out stupid--it's just trying to stay focused for long periods of time with nothing to play.

"Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?"

Bad beat posts are passe. Seen some great bad beats lately that weren't even involving me. lol

Thanks for replying,

CJ

[Sam T.]

I think you just have to hang in there. Back in my ring days, I once went 124 consecutive hands without seeing a flop. THAT was a long night.

The problem is that if you are in low-buy in tournaments, during the first couple of hours the players are so loose you're going to have to show down in order to win. So, if you don't have cards to show...GG all.

[sirpupnyc]

Play another tourney or a ring game at the same time (although this invites the danger of seeing twice as many crap hands). It's a distraction from clicking fold and waiting for new cards, though.

Study everyone else at the table. Get to know them, and the proper time to raise with that 84o may reveal itself. (And, if the deck's running so cold that you're not playing any hands, everyone but the most clueless will give you a wide berth when you suddenly play a hand...actual cards probably won't be necessary.)

But sometimes you get those tables where you're certain any move you make is going to be called and you have to just hope a hand turns up.

[Cactus Jack]

[ QUOTE ]
I think you just have to hang in there. Back in my ring days, I once went 124 consecutive hands without seeing a flop. THAT was a long night.

The problem is that if you are in low-buy in tournaments, during the first couple of hours the players are so loose you're going to have to show down in order to win. So, if you don't have cards to show...GG all.

[/ QUOTE ]

We are NOT the same person. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

Ten and a half orbits? Yikes. I love ring games, but I totally suck. I win a few small/medium pots and lose every big one.

We have had the same experiences. You finally get a good hand and a donk sucks out on you. nh (you bleeping bleeping bleep) GG. Then it's back to waiting. You know it will end sometime, but just exactly how long is that?

Archie Bunker to Edith in menopause--"If you're going through the change, you've got thirty seconds...CHANGE!"

Thanks for the reply,

CJ

[Cactus Jack]

[ QUOTE ]
Play another tourney or a ring game..is..a distraction from clicking fold and waiting for new cards, though.

[/ QUOTE ]

So is surfing porn, but -EV. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

Thanks for the advice. It was good.

CJ

[Cactus Jack]

How's this? I'm three hours into the 25K on PS. I've played 5 out of 142 hands out of the blinds. 18 out of 184 total. I've been all in three times, once with 44 and a straight fell around me, K7 and hit a 7 for a single pair, and Q4, and the Q on the flop held up. That's it.

Talk about a cold deck. It's ridiculous. I had QQ once, and it folded and I got the blinds. It's very hard to play when the card bus doesn't ever stop.

CJ--his bus pass has expired

[Cactus Jack]

Finished 5 out of the money. Went in with TT vs AJ and the A hit.

final stats--Total played 20 hands out of 205

6 out of 160 times not in the blinds.

You just can't play without cards, but I survived 1145 players without having any cards all night.

That's poker.

CJ

[ QUOTE ]
How's this? I'm three hours into the 25K on PS. I've played 5 out of 142 hands out of the blinds. 18 out of 184 total. I've been all in three times, once with 44 and a straight fell around me, K7 and hit a 7 for a single pair, and Q4, and the Q on the flop held up. That's it.

Talk about a cold deck. It's ridiculous. I had QQ once, and it folded and I got the blinds. It's very hard to play when the card bus doesn't ever stop.

CJ--his bus pass has expired

[/ QUOTE ]

If you've been playing so few hands, then you should have a very tight image. Have you tried stealing blinds more in the middle levels, raising (almost) any time it's folded around to you in late position regardless of your cards?

I have yet to figure out a way to win a tournament without getting any cards. While you don't have a chance to make mistakes, what can you do without chips? Nothing.

I find during cold stretches like, watching a movie kinda helps. /images/graemlins/wink.gif

Then again, it makes it tough to study opponents when you do that.

[Cactus Jack]

[ QUOTE ]
If you've been playing so few hands, then you should have a very tight image. Have you tried stealing blinds more in the middle levels, raising (almost) any time it's folded around to you in late position regardless of your cards?

[/ QUOTE ]

No, I didn't. But, I did buy HOH2, yesterday, so this situation will NEVER happen again. I will either go down in flames, or never allow myself to get in this position again. There must have been several times when my M was in the Red Zone and I could have been first in with all my chips. I had the image, but didn't take advantage. <smacking forehead on desk>

I get it, now.

CJ

In online cash games I don't worry as much. If the table is pretty much come and go I just don't pay much attention after awhile and only play top tier hands. If it seems rather stable I'll perk up and play, and usually given my tight passive nature to that point I can steal some pots with nothing. Tourney games I go through the same thing a lot as well, just be patient and pay attention to the action around you so you're ready when your time does come. In the PS SNG's I play many times I'm mid or short stacked as we wind down to the bubble b/c I haven't had much in cards. Inevitably though that one hand does come, and its a matter of maximizing it. Once I do its a matter of going into end game play, picking up some blinds etc...
Just remember each hand is its own event, no such thing as a "cold deck" that's just an excuse your mind makes up.

Of course, the deck has no memory, but that doesn't change the fact that it can be paralyzing not to see anything better than A2 in EP for most of a tournament.

With that being said, there has to be an optimal, but elusive, strategy to surviving these situations. I'm also eager to hear more about this because I'm going through a really cold two weeks.

[Cactus Jack]

[ QUOTE ]

Just remember each hand is its own event, no such thing as a "cold deck" that's just an excuse your mind makes up.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah? 6 hands out of 160 that were playable? Trust me, if there was something between 7&159 that were worth playing, they would have been played. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

If you've never experienced a ice-cold run of cards, there are few things more frustrating. When you see a K first card and you know what's coming--a 3--it's funny and sick. When you fold hand after hand after hand, only playing the BB because it's checked around to you, trust me, friend, whether or not the cards have any memory is irrelevant.

You can pretty much trust that during the course of an SNG you're going to get a few hands, then a lot of bad hands, and if you are patient, you'll see a few more hands in awhile. When you go three hours without seeing this ebb and flow, you know what a cold deck is.

Nobody ever talks about it, like if you talk about it you'll get hit with it? It's as much a part of the game as anything else.

CJ