Beginner - Self Destructing

[MagicMan08]

I have been playing serious poker for about 1 year.

It seems lately I have been playing excellent poker, and when I have a decent stack, I have been self destructing.

How can I maintain that focus to be tight aggressive for the whole tournament???

It seems I have been making DONK mistakes the last couple of times?

Is it inexperience of lack of patience or plain and simple stupid moves?

I have had great success and have earned respect among the people I play against as one to analyze someone elses game and I have only been playing for one year.

[Megenoita]

You need to think of the game on a purely theoretical level. That means that once you are doing well, think about what the best way to maximize your current situation is. Don't think about how many chips you have. When you bust out because you donked, think about what you should have done and prepare for next time. It's a process to discipline yourself better, but that's what it's all about.

One thing that helped me is reading the forum, all the hands posted that apply to my game. The more I read, the more I think theoretically so no matter how I'm "feeling", or running, I know in my head, the intellect, what the right play is because it's so cut and dry from all that reading. So I still make the correct play.

M

[beekeeper]

[ QUOTE ]


It seems lately I have been playing excellent poker, and when I have a decent stack, I have been self destructing.



[/ QUOTE ]

Magenoita's advice is very good. Also, note what you yourself said. Your problem sounds more like a chip management/tournament strategy problem more than your play. Lately I have managed to be among the chip leaders when we get down to 6 players (I play home games, not online), and when the other players get more aggressive, I tighten up, my chips get whittled away, and if I finish in the money, it's not first place. So I am practicing my short game and how to maintain a healthy stack relative to the blinds until I get a hand.

Maybe you have acquired your chip stack through very effective aggression or great play. However you built it, your strategy will still have to adjust it as the final table pares down. One reason is that your opponents either are changing their strategy, or (as I'm often told) their previous style of play becomes more effective short handed. From experience I would say tightening up is not the answer, because if you don't get hands, you'll lose your stack through attrition.

I haven't gotten Harrington On Hold'Em Part 2 yet, but from what I've heard, it sounds like it could be helpful.

Just to reiterate, from how you phrase your question, it sounds like you are concentrating on your play and not giving enough thought to how to manage a big stack. It is a shift in strategy because you're thinking about more than just how to play each hand. The small stacks want to double through you, and a confrontation with another big stack could cripple you. Position is much more important than your cards, as is the chip stacks of the players playing into you or yet to play behind. I also think that Skalansky's book on tournament play will help a lot.

Good luck.

[beekeeper]

I just realized that you didn't mention you were playing tournaments. Sorry. If you're talking specifically about ring games, and not tournaments, I think you should search for threads about managing your stack b/c I still think the issue may be not how you're playing individual hands, but how you are thinking about your position at the table and the effect your stack has on your opponents' strategy.

[MisterNatural]

Tilt goes both ways. When running well, it's easy to get overconfident. Before you know it, you're getting involved with sub par hands in sub par situations because you're riding the high of a rush. You might want to try some meditation. It will help you become more mindful and help you maintain that equilibrium that atheletes refer to as being in the zone. You used the term "self destruction". Read some Alan N. Schoonmaker, Ph.D. He's a psychologist and a 2+2 writer who gets into those psychological drives that all of us gamblers should be aware of. He has articles in the online magazine here and at cardplayer.com. Hope this helps.

[lotus776]

DONKS get too wound up in trying to steal when teir stack is already sufficient. I realized myself doing this a couple of months ago and immediately plugged the leak. If you are the big stack and the blinds aren't approaching then just chill...wait for some good cards and other than that watch the drama around the table

[AKQJ10]

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DONKS get too wound up in trying to steal when teir stack is already sufficient.

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That seems a bit of an overgeneralization. You should steal any time it's +EV (in payoff, not in chips). If you're well-stacked, each additional chip is worth less, but more than zero. Therefore if the blinds defend much too little, you should still steal against them. You just wouldn't steal as much as if you were short stacked.

The only truly "sufficient" stack is the one containing all the chips. The tournament director doesn't come out with five players left and say, "You have a third of the chips, Seat 4, so you've clinched first place." Extra chips are always worth something as long as the tournament is active; whether their value is enough for to make a steal +EV is the question. I grant that steals are less often worth it for the big stack, but less often != never.

Great timing for my reply - I was in your exact spot until very recently. I play exclusively $5-$10 MTT and SnGs and have been giving away my stack, esp. after making it to the $$. For what its worth, it discovered that while I said my goal was FT or 1st, I was really playing to cash. Once I got there, it was like "mission accomplished."

You must change gears here or go get a beer - whatever puts yourself into a new mindset.

For me, I STOPPED looking at the Leaderboard completely when I made the cash line. It was no longer helpful. Instead, I opened the other tourney tables and watched the other decent players instead. Total change in what I was following and thinking about from "I need to grow my stack another 30% to be in the zone" to "How can I beat that guy when we are at the same table?"

Last night, it all came together and instead of just making the final table, I took them all down, and knocked out 4 of the other 5 final table players. Needless to say, $600 for first doubled my meager newbie bankroll.

Just like changing gears, you must also change your mindset as the tournament progresses.
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[bholdr]

[ QUOTE ]
I have been playing serious poker for about 1 year.

It seems lately I have been playing excellent poker, and when I have a decent stack, I have been self destructing.

How can I maintain that focus to be tight aggressive for the whole tournament???

It seems I have been making DONK mistakes the last couple of times?

Is it inexperience of lack of patience or plain and simple stupid moves?

[/ QUOTE ]

If i knew, i'd be a far wealthier man right now. Other posters have offered helpful advice, and most of it is spot on. I'll add this, though: One of the great things abuot poker is that the skills needed to become a winner- patience, discipline, and so on, translate in to so many other areas of life and learning.... but no matter how much one studies, some of it just takes time and hard lessons.

keep plugging away; the willingness to learn and improve with appropriate experience is the most important part of sucess- and you already have that. you'll do fine.