Am I Cursed For 2nd?

[RPatterson]

The last 5 18-man sit n go's I've played on Stars I've gotten 4 2nd's and 1 3rd. I know most people would be happy about this but I am pretty pissed. If I get 2nd instead of 1st every tournament that really cuts into my profit.

One of the 4 we got it all-in with my top pair vs. his bottom pair and he rivered his kicker so I can forgive myself for that. But the other 3 I don't have any bad beat stories.

The last one that just occured he minumum raises, I call with 7K. The flop is T72. I check, he checks. The turn is another T. I decide to move all-in which is quite an overbet in the hopes he will call me with A high. Instead he calls me with T8. A few hands later I'd noticed that I'd been raising all of my hands from the small-blind and I need to look to fold my next one probably. But then I was dealt TT. So I decided if I was re-raised it's probably because it appears I'm raising too much and I should just go back over him. This occurs only he has KK.

I feel like my play was fine but I was just on the losing end of everything. I had the 7 and he had the T. I had the TT and he had the KK. Even if I can get away from these I'm still going to lose chips.

Just from those hands, do you think I keep getting 2nd because I suck or I'm on a bad headsup run?

Oh the one before this I tried to make some kind of call on the flop, check-raise all-in on the turn with A high when the board was paired, he just has the 3 of a kind.

That play maybe was bad.

[Phill S]

without simply watching you play i cant pass any definitive judgement or advice.

however, i believe like most of poker, heads up play requires bags of confidence, of which you probably dont have with your play now.

i went through a streak where i just couldnt get the top spot. i tried as many strategies as i could think of.

what i did in the end was play something like 25 straight heads up sit and goes. i found a positive outcome over those games, and it did what i fundamentally wanted, it gave me confidence. note that the practice you actually get isnt directly comparable, due to blind differences, but it is still practice of a fine art that most people dont get a chance to do often enough.

in the 50 some matches ive had since, im getting first more than second and third (almost as much as put together).

i claim no miracle cure, but it helped me.

Phill

[Desdia72]

[ QUOTE ]
The last 5 18-man sit n go's I've played on Stars I've gotten 4 2nd's and 1 3rd. I know most people would be happy about this but I am pretty pissed. If I get 2nd instead of 1st every tournament that really cuts into my profit.

One of the 4 we got it all-in with my top pair vs. his bottom pair and he rivered his kicker so I can forgive myself for that. But the other 3 I don't have any bad beat stories.

The last one that just occured he minumum raises, I call with 7K. The flop is T72. I check, he checks. The turn is another T. I decide to move all-in which is quite an overbet in the hopes he will call me with A high. Instead he calls me with T8. A few hands later I'd noticed that I'd been raising all of my hands from the small-blind and I need to look to fold my next one probably. But then I was dealt TT. So I decided if I was re-raised it's probably because it appears I'm raising too much and I should just go back over him. This occurs only he has KK.

I feel like my play was fine but I was just on the losing end of everything. I had the 7 and he had the T. I had the TT and he had the KK. Even if I can get away from these I'm still going to lose chips.

Just from those hands, do you think I keep getting 2nd because I suck or I'm on a bad headsup run?

Oh the one before this I tried to make some kind of call on the flop, check-raise all-in on the turn with A high when the board was paired, he just has the 3 of a kind.

That play maybe was bad.

[/ QUOTE ]

in my last 14 one table SNGs at the $5 + $.50 level, 5 of my 8 cashes are 2nds. got beat by two str8s, one flush (one the river), two pair, and a higher pair. i guess that what i get for trying to play to aggressive for 1st. then again, i've also had to play from behind in every one of those instances because i was'nt the chipleader.