A very bad tournament hour

[Dentist]

100+9 NL last night.

I was doing very well, good hands, some good flops, etc.
At the end of the first hour I was well above average in chips and feeling good about my play.

However, hour two was one of the worst disasters I've ever had in poker.

I experienced a horriffic run of cards (and we've all had that) and furthermore 4 out of 6 of the blind steals I attempted with the few cards I got got played back at BIG TIME (like someone pushed in and I couldn't call).

It was horrible...

My question:
What do you look for in a hand to go all-in with in the late stages... how long do you wait?

I know that any decent ace, pair are a good start.

But what if there is a raise in front of you already?

I passed up 4's and 3's and A 7 off because they were in the face of a raise.. (the the raisers when they had to show were showing good stuff AQ, AK, pair, etc.).

Eventually I let it go too long (that's how bad the cards were) and with only 1.5 orbits left in chips, I pushed with KJ off, got correctly called by A 7 off on the BB and lost - rightfully so.

What are some of your push-in requirements when desperate?
What do you do when you keep getting played back at "hard"?
How low will you let your stack go before "picking a hand"?

When you get a run like this, does losing just become inevitable? I mean, if you don't get ANY cards (and I mean NOTHING), it's just not going to happen, right?

[fnurt]

Well, losing is never inevitable, because you never know if your bad run of cards is going to continue. It's no more certain to continue than a hot streak is to continue, and we all know hot streaks peter out.

But yes, if you don't get any good cards, you are not going to win the tournament. It's amazing what the top players can sometimes do to fight through these situations, stealing chips whenever they sense weakness even though they can't seem to make a hand of their own. But in an online tourney, you're going to have to show down the best hand at least some percentage of the time.

KJ vs. A7 is a good example; I don't care that he had an ace, you were still only a small dog in this hand. In fact your raise was much easier than his call.

One thing to consider if you want the blinds to stop playing back at you is to go all-in on steals a little earlier than you might otherwise. Obviously you don't want to overdo this, but once you're down to 10xBB, a standard opening raise might as well be all-in. Sure, you run the risk of getting called by a big hand, but most hands will fold. It's a lot easier to bet on your opponent not having a big hand than it is to wait around for a big hand of your own.