I throw myself at the mercy of the MTT forum. Help an old pooh-bah

[Exitonly]

Well a thing i've noticed lately is, emotions have a great deal to do with how you do in tournaments.. if you're depressed/nervous/anxious in the tournament, it's not going to turn out well for you.. kind of a catch-22, because if you start winning, you're going to be feeling on top of the world, but if you're losing, it'll just be a downward spiral. So you gotta find times when you're up, and happy, and take those times to play. (This probably goes for all types of poker not just tournaments, but that's where i have the most experience with it)

As for your psych. problem with betting, i dunno what to tell you.. just try it. You'll see that you take down pots uncontested way more than you think, and once you start, you'll get used to it and it'll be second nature to bet into the J42 board w/ your 66.

I probably missed some other points in there, i'll re-read it and post anything else if i think of it.

-Ray

[nath]

[ QUOTE ]
Well a thing i've noticed lately is, emotions have a great deal to do with how you do in tournaments.. if you're depressed/nervous/anxious in the tournament, it's not going to turn out well for you.. kind of a catch-22, because if you start winning, you're going to be feeling on top of the world, but if you're losing, it'll just be a downward spiral. So you gotta find times when you're up, and happy, and take those times to play.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's true. Keep a clear head and have confidence in your ability and you will find decisions will come much easier.

Also, look for good situations, not just good cards. This is especially true in the middle and late stages of tournaments. When you can take away a pot, do so. You cannot wait around to make the best hand because you will not do so often enough to win.

Play like you don't care about going broke and your results will improve tremendously.

[whiskeytown]

I know psychology has a lot to do with it, but most of my latest tourneys I've been in a good mood - off the sauce and just generally looking for a nice 2K win - I don't need $800000, just something so I don't end up pumping $200-300/month into online accounts for $10 tourneys.

RB

[Nepa]

[ QUOTE ]
I know psychology has a lot to do with it, but most of my latest tourneys I've been in a good mood - off the sauce and just generally looking for a nice 2K win - I don't need $800000, just something so I don't end up pumping $200-300/month into online accounts for $10 tourneys.

RB

[/ QUOTE ]

When you are busting out of these touraments is there a trend? ie. are you calling off your chips? are you bluffing off your chips? are getting blinded off?

Are you stealing enough? Are you trying to steal too much? Do you take position into account? Do you mix up your play? Do you shift gears? Do you take reveased implied odds into account? Do you ever call bluff? Do you play a random hand every now and then? How well do you defend? Can you put down a good hand? How do you do in single table SNG's? Is NL HE your best game? if not, what is?

Sorry if this is too many questions.

[BPA234]

I can empathize with your post. I have experienced marathon sessions of failure @ MTT. To the point that I was losing all the money I won on 1/200 sng's and 1/2 cash games to my MTT habit.

The one item I read in your post that stuck out and seemed to resonate as a very large road block to your success, was your aversion to get your money in the middle.

"I'm so scared of getting re-raised/bluffed off a hand I'd rather check/call so I know exactly every action how much it'll cost me to do -"

IMO, this is the exact opposite of the attitude required to win. I think you should look for opportunities to get as much money in the middle as possible. If you are check calling, you should only be doing that in order to build their commitment to a later street reraise.

[JustPlayingSmart]

I haven't read the responses, but here is my suggestion. In the next few days or weeks, depending on how often you play, and the next 5 times you get fairly deep into a tournament with a medium-sized stack, make a play that you consider reckless and would not even have thought about making before. See which of these plays work and which don't.

Example: You are on button with 56s. CO min raises preflop, and you triple his raise. SB pushes in and you are pot committed and have to call. He has AK. Sometimes you suck out here and sometimes you don't.

This exercise will
1) help you grow a pair of balls
2) help you learn in which situations thes plays are more effective

[DonT77]

Lots of good advice on this thread. I think a lot of it can be summed up in the now oft quoted phrase "you gotta be willing to die in order to live".

Personally, I think of it this way-
Let's say I'm in a $20 MTT and 41-50 pay $25.00 and there are 100 players left and I'm in 45th chip position - so I don't have much $Equity yet. However, if I double-up my $Equity will way more than double since now I'll have a top 10 stack and a shot at top 3 money which is where the big $ is at - so I'm really not adverse to taking coinflip/neutral EV gambles in this situation. I probably don't cash as much as a lot of players, but I bet my FT% is higher than most (not withstanding the times I fold QQ PF [img]/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img]). IMO you have to swing for the fences and hit a few homeruns to be a long-term MTT winner - I don't think you can be a substantial winner hitting just singles and doubles once in a while.

I'd like to hear if others agree or not.

[locutus2002]

Here is my simple advice:

If you want to become a better MTT player you need to focus on your game.

Here is how I would go about focusing.

Only play one site - IMO the sites have a very different feel to them during each phase of the tournament. Party rewards tighter play due to the lack of antes and 10 handed. You will learn the rhythm of the tournament you pick.
I'm not suggesting forever, just for now.

Only play one game at a time - If you have more than one game open you aren't really concentrating on the players and the table. Most of your actions are reflex, some of these reflex actions are preventing you from being a better player.

Tighten the ship - Probably the lowest hanging fruit is bet size. We (most of us) struggle over getting 2-5% advantage in the hand, but don't worry about 1/4XBB in a 20XBB pot when we bet. In cases where you have the best hand, if villain calls you may have bet too little, and if he folds the reverse. Look at all the areas in HOH (I just read the first page of the chapter).

Review your game - Go over your HH no matter how tedious and painful to see where you donked off chips. I'd start by just looking at hands where you won or lost 10% of your stack and look for improvements. If you have questions, post.

Play less not more - I think the above formula can improve any player and has nothing to do with playing alot. I suspect that most online players have a serious addiction problem, and that multitabling MTT is EV-- for all but the best players who have better honed skills, instincts, and MANAGE their multitabling. (although it does reduce variance).

GL.

Excellent post, locutus, really top notch.

[gobboboy]

Playing tight aggressive does not mean you have to only play the top 20% of hands. I will open with pure junk sometimes just because I figure my image can handle it and I will only get played back at with the top 10% in hands. When you open raise almost every single time, the amount of hand reading you have to do is reduced to either knowing if they have a pocket pair or knowing if they have high cards.

I've only just started consistently making it deep, but most of the reason that I've been doing that is because I'm building a stack by not allowing my bad hands to make it to showdown. I actually enjoy playing out of position against raises because most people are so timid that they are not willing to bluff people out of the pot. You can scare people out of a LOT of money by calling in the SB or BB against a MP raise,calling the flop and leading the turn on a board you don't think they hit. The key of this is knowing when they will believe you.