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View Full Version : 1st day playing all $200 tourneys, all in nightmares


Pitcher
04-27-2004, 12:13 PM
Hi All,

I finished my 1st full day playing all $200 tournaments. I was very fortunate with two wins at the end to come out up a couple hundred for the day. The bottom line was that I was down nearly $1800 until that point. Not good!
I must admit that I was very frustrated by the session. During the middle of the session I finished 4th four straight times. In 3 of the 4 times I was the chip leader (twice by very large margins) at the bubble. Then the "all ins every single hand regardless of starting cards" started. At first, I was trying to play my normal shorthanded requirements for all ins, but I started getting lots of very bad hands. In one game I folded to an all in bet on the BB six straight times. The blinds were quite large by then....I looked back in Poker Tracker and these were the starting hands during that stretch: 5-2, 7-4, J-2, 3-4, 9-3, and 10-2. Then I took two huge bad beats in two of the games to get knocked out. AA vs A3, and A-10 vs. 7-5. Both times the players moved all in with these hands from UTG. Of course, that is the perfect time on the bubble to make these plays.
Anyway, during those 4 games at the bubble 90% of the hands were all in pre-flop and during one game every single hand at the bubble was all in. This definitely got me off my game a bit (small tilt, not "tilt overdrive") and after that I played worse and called too many hands the next tourney. I finished 6th (played A-2 vs. A-J on the flop, trying to steal, then wouldn't laydown to a re-raise...just dumb) I took a break after that, wrote down some of my thoughts to get myself emotionally ready to play, then won the last two tourneys I played for the evening. I did play very well the last two, but I must admit, the all ins wore me down emotionally.
Do any of you have any good suggestions for combatting this? I thought I had a good handle on it, but when it is happening on every hand from 3 different players, I just wasn't sure what to do after awhile. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Pitcher

imcastleman
04-27-2004, 12:58 PM
I may not qualify to respond to this, however here are my thoughts.

I play 50's a lot and get about 15% ROI, mostly because I call all ins too much. Anyway, I try to tell myself over and over again to NOT CALL ALL IN Bets. You need to be the one pushing when you are first in the pot, especially when you have a short stack. On any given hand(7 5 for example against AT) against any ace, you will win at worst 36% of the time, so as a short stack you now have plenty of chips to win the tournament. The worse case, is of course if the caller has an overpair, but those are the chances you take. Maybe my logic is way off the mark, but you need to be the first one in the pot and for the most part do NOT CALL all in bets. Does anyone else agree or disagree with me?? I am learning too, so I would like feedback as well.

Pitcher
04-27-2004, 01:56 PM
Hi imcastleman,

I certainly agree with you generally. You always want to be the one raising and pushing if possible, and calling all ins as a general rule, is a pretty bad idea.

In this case, this particular set of players (especially in one of the games...it was spooky, almost like collusion) went all in pre-flop on every hand on the bubble. It seemed like I was emotionally unprepared for that level of aggression.

Pitcher

Prickly Pete
04-27-2004, 02:06 PM
Pitcher,

What you ran into is not uncommon. Being able to play that part of the game effectively is key to winning at the 200s. As you found out, even if you know their allin standards are weak, how can you call with 94o? It can be very frustrating. Just be willing to make those pushes some yourself and lower your allin calling standards a bit. (What that standard is exactly is very situation dependent.) When that works and you can knock someone off, you're generally in good shape to win the whole thing.

Sorry, I know that's not really of much use. But, there's no concrete answer in my opinion.

Pitcher
04-27-2004, 03:15 PM
Hi Prickly Pete,

I think your advice is excellent. Your all in standards should be completely situational.
I think I got into such a habit of folding to them, that I couldn't get out of it....plus with a couple of bad beats you get gun shy....
I am well on my way to getting over this...won 1st. 3 today and went all in over and over when the time came....funny what some really good results do for your confidence /images/graemlins/cool.gif /images/graemlins/cool.gif /images/graemlins/smirk.gif /images/graemlins/grin.gif

Pitcher