Do you suck at tournament poker?

[miami32]

I do.

I'm a winning cash game player. Limit and No-limit. I do very well in fact but when it come to tournaments I just suck. I get bored and then make terrible plays where I'm very cognizant of the fact that I'm taking the worst of it.

What do you guys do to stay focused. I've read some other posts and I'm going to start eating better and jogging.

Any suggestions?

[SNOWBALL138]

I rule at tournaments. I beat 85 players to take first place in my first live tournament. The key to staying focused is keeping your mind active with tournament concepts, and also paying attention to your opponents. For more info on the stuff to think about during tournaments read tournament poker for advanced players by sklansky, and also the two harrington on hold em books. Mason has some good discussion of tournaments in his book gambling theory and other topics also.

What kind of tournaments are you playing? If you are talking about SNGs on party, they are basically a science unto themselves, and the best way to learn SNGs is to find the biggest strongest player in the STT forum, and become his b*tch. Sure, he'll rough you up, but he'll also teach you how to be a man.

Seriously though, the best way to stay focussed is to have something to focus on. Posting either in the STT or MTT forums will put you on the right path. When I play live, my key to staying focused is to stare at people's wrists to interpret what their betting motions mean.

OTOH, its harder for me to stay focused during omaha eight or better games, because thats my worst game so don't really know what to focus on very well besides noticing which players at the table will call 2 cold on the river with his 4th nut low.

P.S. Sometimes in a long tournament, not focusing is a good thing. The reason is that if you try to focus the whole time, you will fry your brain. Harrington writes about this somewhere. Anyway, the important thing is to focus at the important moments in the tournament.

[Autocratic]

I just started up with MTTs, and I find it far easier to stay interested. In a cash game, if you go broke, you reload. In a tournament more is on the line, and that keeps me into it. Depending on your style, you can be a little looser in tournaments, and the constant adjusting of playing style is enough to keep me focused.

Set short term tournament goals for yourself ("I'll be at 4000 chips by the next level"). Don't kick yourself for not hitting them, but goals remind me to be aggressive, which keeps me involved and thus forces me to pay attention.

[miami32]

It's not that I don't know how to play them, I do. I have read all the books and done all the studying. I just can't stay focused. I do very well in SNG tournaments. I 8 table them and always keep focused. It's just when I 1 table that 40k guarenteed. I know I'm better player then most playing that tournament, yet I get bored and make stupid plays. I just need to learn how to keep focused is all. Thats what I was really asking though.

[lastsamurai]

Do you get bored when you play MTT's?

[miami32]

I get so bored I want to kill myself.

[lastsamurai]

I feel you pain playing MTT's. I'm a + ev player playing 1 and 2 table $25 sngs and i quit playing MTT's because of the time factor. I figure the time i spend playing a tournament for 3 hours i could of gone through 3-4 SNGS in that time. Let me guess...Usually in the first hour you will be in the top 10% of the chip leaders of the tournament..run into one bad beat that kills your stack...and then get cracked a few hands later?

[yellowjack]

I have the opposite problem, at least in live play. What are some of your strengths in cash games that don't carry so well into STTs and MTTs?

[pokernicus]

[ QUOTE ]
Set short term tournament goals for yourself ("I'll be at 4000 chips by the next level"). Don't kick yourself for not hitting them, but goals remind me to be aggressive, which keeps me involved and thus forces me to pay attention.

[/ QUOTE ]

Personally, I think it's dangerous to set goals like that. You may start to make bad decisions -- e.g., being overly aggressive in the wrong spots, etc., just to make your goal. Anyway, I think Greg Raymer said something to this effect on one of the recent WSOP broadcasts.

On the other hand, I think you should be aware of where you are at all times as in the HoHv2 zone system, and adjust your play accordingly.

[Lash]

[ QUOTE ]
Do you get bored when you play MTT's?

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't, I just don't fully understand all the concepts involved so my mind wanders.

Not only that, I often feel that I'm waisting my time trying to beat such a large field when I could be spending time squeaking out an hourly rate. Whether I actually earn the hourly rate or not (maybe there is luck afterall) I have found a very tangible / immediate way to display my knowledge and understanding.

[Lash]

[ QUOTE ]
I have the opposite problem, at least in live play. What are some of your strengths in cash games that don't carry so well into STTs and MTTs?

[/ QUOTE ]

- not a skill here, but the general community is much more down to earth in live play... games with people sitting around the table talking about life and such... you don't find that as much in tournaments...

-Skills for me that don't translate well:
I guess it's more about the ones from tournaments that don't translate the other direction. You need to be able to take into account stack sizes and increasing blinds, pay out structure etc. when you are making decisions... I guess I'm a little more lazy than some of your top tournament pros? Hell I don't know.

[Warren Whitmore]

In "ace on the river" an interesting point was made that on the fame and fortune spectrum people who prefer fortune are better and more focused at ring games. People who are more fame seekers tend to do better in tourneyments. Its hard to stay focused on things you dont care about.

[Bez]

Why don't you just play your normal cash games alongside the tournament? Just leave the cash games if you get near the money.

[TomCollins]

In tournaments, you generally have less room to get "creative". There usually is a correct play and very little room after that point. The exception is any tournament with deep stacks. However, most online tournaments are usually in the "all in on the flop" mode after the first hour.

I used to do quite well in tournaments, but since I have switched to NL cash games with a LAG style, I have a much harder time in tournaments. I usually accumulate chips early, then either get too creative and lose them quickly when the blinds rise, or I run into my one unlucky hand that costs me my stack.

Then again, I tend to suck at limit for the same reasons.

The only time I feel truly alive as a poker player is when I'm in a tournament. In fact, when I bust out of a tournament, the disappointment (especially in B&M tounaments) is often not I failed to cash, or make the final table, or what not ... it's that I'm not playing any more.

Even though I am a consistent winner in ring games at B&Ms, I don't get the same charge from cash games.

Tournaments may just not fit our personality type, but maybe if you read some of the great books on tournaments (Sklansky and Harrington, for example), it would give you the necessary paradigm shift to appreciate tournament play.

[vexvelour]

SNGs are a great way to wean yourself into tourney poker. I f'in love SNGs.

Why not just stick to cash games? I stopped playing tournaments and went to cash games and I'm making money much more consistantly. Oddly enough, I was bored of cash games today and played a MTT just for something different and I won.

Are you an online player? Because if you like to play live and if you are from Miami as am I, real cash games can be hard to come by, but tournaments are around.

But if you play online, stick to what works for you. If you aren't making money in tournaments and find them boring, why play them?