[Blarg]

This may have nothing to do with you, but since you're echoing so clearly what I've said in certain situations, here's something I've noticed about my own play and a problem with it. I've found that one of my ongoing problems to keep working on is that I get myself in situations where it matters too much if AA is cracked.

That sounds like a glib statement working toward an even more uselessly glib point, but what I'm trying to get at is that sometimes I've been in precisely the same situation as you, not only losing but getting knocked out with the better hand time and again. No imagination, the real thing, and very frustrating. The thing is, in a way I put myself in the situation for that to happen because in SNG's you are not going to get enough good cards to play only good cards; if you wait for good cards, your stack is going to be so small and the battle is going to be waged at blinds that are so high that you'll be in one confrontation per tournament, and it will be an all-or-nothing that you must win, or you're out. You'll have no wiggle room. Alternatively, if your stack is small enough because you've been waiting so long to make your stand, even winning will only get you a pittance.

That will be because you haven't acquired any extra chips to give you the wiggle room to threaten others with your stack, thereby avoiding a confrontation, or to be able to lose a hand or two without being crippled or gone.

If you sometimes apply aggression not based on your cards but based on position and stack sizes and blind sizes, you may be operating with almost as much on your side as if you were actually holding good cards. There will almost certainly be a time during each tourney where you will be forced to be aggressive without the cards to back it up. If you choose carefully AND have a fair share of luck, then when the occasional cruel twist of fate comes around and your AA gets busted, you might have the chips to survive it, or get such an intimidating stack that people won't dare mess with you, either by stealing your blinds or by defending when you steal theirs.

I don't know if this applies to you or not. I know when I start losing, I clam up and it applies to me less and less. When that happens and I miss all my opportunities to bet with nothing, I'm forced to bet with something and hope it works every single time. And winning every single time is a lot ot ask even from aces.

So, I have to be sure I'm not just trying to get myself in the situation to win a hand; I have to set myself up to win a game. And that means, somewhere along the line, I'm going to have to win without a hand.

Is that anything like what is happening to you? Less and less confidence making you tighten up more and more until it's an all or nothing ride on AK or 77? If so, it might partly be coming from the same cause. You won't be a long term winner in NL Hold'em SNG's if you only play good cards. Any fool can do that, and mostly just as well as anyone else. To be better than those guys who only play good cards, you have to learn to play bad ones.