[justT]

In my chip count charting adventures (which nobody seemed to like since nobody responded), I found a pattern which always ended in me busting out shortly after it occured, I call it going "flatline". Basically it's a period in the middle of a tourney where my chip count is flat or slightly decreasing for 3 or more orbits. Usually this means I was card dead, and just folding. I really don't think it's an inflection point problem, I think it's more a problem with my stack becoming less competitive to the other stacks (more of a Q problem than an m problem).

I've come to the conclusion that I can't allow my stack to flatline even if I'm card dead. I need to find good situations and keep accumulating chips. I track my chip count so I know if/when I've started to flatline.

I've also started recording all the preflop raises. I use a simple 10 column table, each column is a player, each row is a hand. Whenever there is a preflop raise, I convert it to BB's and write it down. Then when confronted with a raise, I look at the last 20 or so hands to see how often the player has been raising, and how big his raises have been. Looking at the frequency and size of my raises also helps me determine my table image.