Agression Level during a bad run of cards

[intheflatfield]

I was in a $50 backroom MTT last night. about 35 players. 5k starting chip stacks. Normally I like to play a pretty standard TAG style, but last night I was getting absolutely no cards the entire night I had 1 pp (2's) and kt0 2x as my best hands. I was only able to play one hand outside of the blinds, and had to fold that to a re-raise (correctly, as it turned out). At any rate I ended up folding my may to the final table and finishing 8th. I don't know whether to congratulate myself on having acquired enough disciipline to resist playing bad cards, or second guess myself for not making some moves (blind steals, bluff's) anything.

I know I haven't posted much in the way of specific info, but taking as a given that I have an acceptable knowledge of Theory and strategy, did I play correctly, or should I have been more creative, and thrown Theory and caution to the wind, so to speak..

How do you handle these type of situations, when they occur?

[intheflatfield]

allrighty then...

[Superfluous Man]

Steal more blinds from people you read as weak-tight. Also, gambool with a short stack (e.g. open-push preflop when folded to you in late, or even sometimes middle, position) before you become an absolutely desperate short-stack. You'll often win the blinds; or even better, suck out and double up.

Sometimes you just go card dead and lose. When I read these types of threads, I get the impression that some people expect to win every tournament despite what cards they get. You won't win a tournament without getting some cards or winning some coinflips (or even sucking out when you run into a monster or get your bluffs picked off). The sooner one accepts this, the sooner that person can concentrate simply on maximizing his EV on any given hand.

[intheflatfield]

Look I know I'm a newbie and my post was very general in nature, but I really would like some comment on how other people handle long runs of bad cards in a MTT situation.

[intheflatfield]

Thanks for the reply. I see where you are coming from. Normally I do steal blinds and play agressively, but in this particular case. I noticed blind steals being called frequently as well as inferior hands cold calling raises, etc..

I am realistic about not winning every tournament, in fact playing this passively is rare for me. I did try to maximze EV on every hand.

I don't know if I played too passively, but I did walk away thinking I showed good discipline and played soundly. It's just that I had never actually had a run of bad cards last an entire tournament, and I was curious if I handled it correctly. I guess I was just afraid of being a rock.

[mlagoo]

the thing is, if you've gone, for instance, three orbits without playing a hand, and all the sudden you push from the CO, you're going to get the blinds a great amount of the time -- and, even with the times you aren't given the blinds, you'll suck out, which is tons of fun.

you need to be cognizant of your table image and use it to your advantage. sure, there will be the times where you push with T4o and get called by QQ -- that's poker. But you need to at least make an effort to accumulate some blinds and give yourself a chance to catch some good cards.

[intheflatfield]

The more I think about it, I may have just matured a little as player. When I started getting serious about playing sound poker, One of my major leaks was that I would start out with good standards and TAG play, but if I did get faced with bad cards for any sustained perioud, I would end up playing tjo like it was the holy nuts, just because I got bored and wanted to play.

Hopefully that's the case, anyway..

[intheflatfield]

I think you hit my original question on the head. That's exactly what I was concerned with. I guess I fall into not wanting be seen as a fish or calling station, when in actuality most of the people at the table probably aren't even thinking about my play, much less my table image. I guess I just need to get over my poker pride and not be afraid to get caught sometimes.

I've heard that people fall into the trap of confusing being recognized as a good player with actually winning. As they may be opposing concepts in reality..

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How do you handle these type of situations, when they occur?

[/ QUOTE ]

The answer is in your question. You are stating that you may be losing aggression when the cards are missing you. This is a self-weighting strategy.

Good players will pick up on it and punish you for it. They will constantly try to push you off pots. They won't give you any action when you do have a hand. Or worse, when you do have a hand, the only hands that will come at you, are other strong hands.

The answer is to be non-self-weighting. So okay, you've gone several orbits and haven't seen any cards. You've noticed that your opponents have noticed and have adjusted to your "tighter" "less aggressive" approach.

Now you catch something like QJs or Ace-little suited in EP. Typically you would fold this hand in no limit, or maybe try to limp and see a flop inexpensively. So what do you do?

You shift gears and raise! Sure, maybe someone comes over the top at you and you have to let it go. On the other hand, maybe you cause some better hands like a 66 or 99 to fold. Or maybe you get someone to cold call with something like TT when they had planned to raise themselves. In situations like these, you have gained and your opponents have lost, along with the added value of deception.

In any case, let's say you then get to see a flop. If the board is scary in any way, or hits you in any way, then your preflop raise has set you up to potentially take the pot down with a value bet or semi-bluff bet.

In other words, you have altered your play in order to try and make other players make a mistake. Even if you are unlucky and don't win this pot, at least you have changed up your play and shown other players that you are playing something other than the nuts.

This is not something to get carried away with and starting madly raising with QJs UTG every time. Then players will start reading you (correctly) as a bit of a maniac or a bit of a fool. The point is to do it enough to mix up your play and make it harder for opponents to put you on a hand.

[A_PLUS]

[ QUOTE ]
I've heard that people fall into the trap of confusing being recognized as a good player with actually winning. As they may be opposing concepts in reality..

[/ QUOTE ]

Bingo. I went through this. Most players do, you start to learn about the game, play better cards, winning. You associate preflop standards as the mark of "good play".
You feel some obscene sense of pride when you continue to fold your tournament away when the T3o's keep coming.

If you keep at it, you will start to see that there is so much more to tournament play than your starting hand. Next time you are sitting there, folding away. Start counting the number of hands that get shown down. When there is no showdown, think "wow, it really didnt matter what hand he had there"

I dont mean to put you down. Exactly the opposite. You have reached the 2nd step (tight-disciplined play). You are ahead of many players already. They problem is, if you play this style against me (and I am barely an adequate player), it will really take a miraculous run of cards for you to win, b/c I will be picking up the pot every time you miss (which is often).

How do you take the next step?
read Harrington's tournament books and post your hands on here with an open mind.