Playing the Best Poker of my Life, but.....
Hi all.
just need to post this, I need to get this out of me.
For the past week, I have been playing the best poker of my life, But I lost 15 straight Tourny. It took at big chunk of my bankroll.
I know, I play poker at my best, because:
1)when I have the Hand: I always burst my opponent for all their stacked.
2) I have not been Out play: making all the correct decision.
3) Long string of Dead Card: I manage to steal Blinds, every round.
4) Fix my Tilting problem: I no longer get piss off, I just don't feel anything.
What really Kill me:
Late in the tourny, when Blind is High, if i play, I always hit it big, but when I hit big, I'm just been setup to die............
say:
UTG AQ, Raise 3x of blind.
1 caller on the botton
Flop Q2Q Rainbow.
i check
he bet 1/4 of the pot, I call.
Turn 9
I check
He bet the pot.
I raise him 3x
He's ALL-in (he had me cover)
I type in the message box, AQ. then I lay the trip down.
HE Show Q2.
I type: how can you call my UTG raise with Q2.
he type: 3x of blind for a chance to take all your stack. (shark or Fish?)
Lost almost half of my stack
another tourny
AcKc, Flop JcTc7c
i check, he's all-in.
let see
only str8 flush beat me, i am big favor to win against anything else.
if he made str8 flush, why would he shut me out here, especially, I CHECK the flop.
so I call.
he turn over 8c9c
OK,,,, time to enter another tourny......
even know i am playing at my best, I just can't win.
just need to post this, I need to get this out of me.
For the past week, I have been playing the best poker of my life, But I lost 15 straight Tourny. It took at big chunk of my bankroll.
I know, I play poker at my best, because:
1)when I have the Hand: I always burst my opponent for all their stacked.
2) I have not been Out play: making all the correct decision.
3) Long string of Dead Card: I manage to steal Blinds, every round.
4) Fix my Tilting problem: I no longer get piss off, I just don't feel anything.
What really Kill me:
Late in the tourny, when Blind is High, if i play, I always hit it big, but when I hit big, I'm just been setup to die............
say:
UTG AQ, Raise 3x of blind.
1 caller on the botton
Flop Q2Q Rainbow.
i check
he bet 1/4 of the pot, I call.
Turn 9
I check
He bet the pot.
I raise him 3x
He's ALL-in (he had me cover)
I type in the message box, AQ. then I lay the trip down.
HE Show Q2.
I type: how can you call my UTG raise with Q2.
he type: 3x of blind for a chance to take all your stack. (shark or Fish?)
Lost almost half of my stack
another tourny
AcKc, Flop JcTc7c
i check, he's all-in.
let see
only str8 flush beat me, i am big favor to win against anything else.
if he made str8 flush, why would he shut me out here, especially, I CHECK the flop.
so I call.
he turn over 8c9c
OK,,,, time to enter another tourny......
even know i am playing at my best, I just can't win.
Comments
turn up the aggression, man
Sure they had you beat, but how many other hands have you laid down to a big bet.
Is your goal to WIN or make the money?
I was slow playing my Trips.
until i realize i was beat, and lay it down.
as for turn on the aggession,.........you have to understand, this kind of stuff happen to you, once in a bluemoon. BUT I have to doge it a few time per tourny, just to make it to the money.
Full Tilt Poker Game #1896615317: $10 + $1 Sit & Go (14154466), Table 2 - 600/1200 - No Limit Hold'em - 5:40:04 ET - 2007/03/01
Seat 4: chuckieland (11,260)
Seat 6: fiftythreedays (15,740)
chuckieland posts the small blind of 600
fiftythreedays posts the big blind of 1,200
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to chuckieland [7h 8h]
chuckieland calls 600
fiftythreedays checks
*** FLOP *** [4h 2c 5h]
fiftythreedays checks
chuckieland checks
*** TURN *** [4h 2c 5h] [7d]
fiftythreedays bets 1,200
chuckieland calls 1,200
*** RIVER *** [4h 2c 5h 7d] [Th]
fiftythreedays bets 13,340, and is all in <-I knew he has flush, not that i have read him, but with my luck at fulltilt,........
chuckieland calls 8,860, and is all in <- well, turning on the aggression, I give it a try, maybe i was laying down the winning hand alot.
Uncalled bet of 4,480 returned to fiftythreedays
*** SHOW DOWN ***
fiftythreedays shows [9h Jh] (a flush, Jack high) <- Of course, what was i thinking.
chuckieland shows [7h 8h] (a flush, Ten high)
fiftythreedays wins the pot (22,520) with a flush, Jack high
chuckieland stands up
fiftythreedays stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 22,520 | Rake 0
Board: [4h 2c 5h 7d Th]
Seat 4: chuckieland (small blind) showed [7h 8h] and lost with a flush, Ten high
Seat 6: fiftythreedays (big blind) showed [9h Jh] and won (22,520) with a flush, Jack high
You are loosing partly due to bad beats. These happen, you simply need to get used to it. However, you are also losing due to your bad play. You say you are trapping, but by giving him the lead in the betting you give yourself no opportunity to narrow down your opponents range of hand, and therefore have no ability to get away from your hand. To me the results don't matter as much as the play, and in this and previous posts your play has been a bit poor.
Honestly, I think you need to go back to basics a bit. When you choose to play a hand, play it strong. Take the lead by betting pre-flop, and keep firing until your opponent gives you reason to stop (paraphrased from Greenstein). When you are beat you will lose a little more than your current (weaker) line, but when you are ahead you will win more, and you won't get drawn out on as often.
Some other random thoughts:
Tournaments have significant variance. I've lost a lot more than this in a row, and often it's with the best hand. However, allowing yourself to get short-stacked by playing too tight and then going out with the best hand is NOT playing well. Consider reading HoH - it's probably the best tournament series out there right now.
I'm at the conservative end of bankroll management, but regardless, you should not lose a big chunk in 15 tournaments. As mentioned above, tournaments have more variance, so you need a lot of buy-ins to survive. If your bankroll simply isn't big enough to support tournaments, consider using cash game winnings to pay for them. Personally, I was using around 10-20% of my cash game profits to pay for my tournaments.
I'm sure you're an honest guy, but how do you really know? Are you going over hand histories or getting an objective evaluation from a (skilled) friend? We all have opinions of our play, but it isn't always accurate. We may forget the hand we played badly but remember the great hands and the bad beats. Also, with tilting, you don't need to feel upset to have it affect your play. Basically, don't assume you are playing well, get a second opinion. And even if you are playing well, you can always play better, so keep looking for ways to improve your game. Playing your best should only mean your best today - tomorrow you need to play even better because your competition is improving every day).
DON'T DO THIS!!! If you really think you are beat, go ahead and fold. However, while you may think your opinion thinks highly of you for this, and your ego is slightly stroked, you have just told the table "I fold big hands - attack me". Just muck and let him think you had big slick or something else - don't give your opponents free info (especially when it is far more likely to hurt than help you).
There are good and bad players who will call raises (even 5x) to try and bust you - get used to it. Bottom line is you need to get a read on your opponents and figure out how they play BEFORE you get involved in a pot with them, so you know how to play optimally against them.
This is meant to help not to attack, so I hope you can take this the way it is intended. Good luck at the tables!
stp
Trevor addressed most points so I won't get into it. To stay alive in tourney's you need aggression. You need to "raise" preflop. You need to bet out strong post flop regardless of cards. You need to recognize when your opponent hit so you can fold and not fall into his trap. If you call a raise (or raise OOP and get called) then beware. Reads on your opponent play a large part. Will he check then raise you, will he be straight forward and bet out if he hit or has an overpair.
As for his comment about calling raises that's what the set miners, the flush masters etc try and do. Call a raise hope to hit and stack you. When there are no obvious draws on board and someone keeps calling what are they calling you with? Usually a set.
Tournaments are very high variance and as such you should either comment a small portion of your total bankroll or have a separate tourney bankroll to fund them. Personally I like the stars 180 SNG's for working on tourney skills or trying different approaches to tourneys.
Maybe even forget the tourney's and go back to grinding some cash game winnings out and then slowly revisit the tournament route.
Good Luck.
As far as my 2 cents:
BS. If you weren't angry, we wouldn't have had to read this post. Everyone tilts, it's just a matter of how badly. And if you think you don't...you're full of it. Accept it, but try to minimize the damage it does to your BR.
I call BS. How the hell can you lay down top set, top kicker? You got exactly what you wanted from the villain, the chance to take alll his chips when he pushed all in. You're trying to tell me you can lay that down? BS.
Second hand-
Tough beat. There is no way you can't get all your chips in there with the NUT flush. Too bad he miraculously had the only 2 cards that could beat you.
especially to beanie42 and acidjoe
I am now back to winning track. for the last 9 tourny, i am top 3 on 7 tourny. and for the lost, I need to learn how to dealing with over pair....
in a non dangerous flop, my QQ run into slow playing AA.
another lost, i find lucky callingstation is hardest player to beat.......punish them for stay in the pot with you, but they outdraw you at the end.......
I think these hands illustrate what Joe means here.
FYI, I had tripled my buy-in on another table that subsequently collapsed so I opened another table with the intent of playing stack poker and attacking every large stack. It is high variance, so I am not advocating this style of play, just using it for illustration.
I had been on this table for a while, up and down, but the first thing is, you have to keep your stack at the max. Nothing sucks more than catching a hand and not winning the max possible. I had fallen down to $60 or so, so I had just rebought to $100 when this hand occured.
Easy Virtue 10474659-339074 Holdem No Limit $0.50/$1
[Mar 12 10:34 pm:40] : Hand Start.
[Mar 12 10:34 pm:40] : Seat 1 : 271277 has $192.75
[Mar 12 10:34 pm:40] : Seat 2 : BdaSlim has $128.50
[Mar 12 10:34 pm:40] : Seat 3 : lovemom has $113.50
[Mar 12 10:34 pm:40] : Seat 4 : kingetje has $252.44
[Mar 12 10:34 pm:40] : Seat 5 : cdn_moose has $100
[Mar 12 10:34 pm:40] : lovemom is the dealer.
[Mar 12 10:34 pm:40] : kingetje posted small blind.
[Mar 12 10:34 pm:41] : cdn_moose posted big blind.
[Mar 12 10:34 pm:41] : Game [339074] started with 5 players.
[Mar 12 10:34 pm:41] : Dealing Hole Cards.
[Mar 12 10:34 pm:41] : Seat 5 : cdn_moose has 9h Ah
[Mar 12 10:34 pm:44] : 271277 called $1 and raised $3
[Mar 12 10:34 pm:47] : BdaSlim folded.
[Mar 12 10:34 pm:30] : lovemom folded.
[Mar 12 10:34 pm:32] : kingetje folded.
[Mar 12 10:34 pm:33] : cdn_moose called $3
[Mar 12 10:34 pm:33] : Dealing flop.
[Mar 12 10:34 pm:33] : Board cards [Js 6h 9c]
[Mar 12 10:34 pm:38] : cdn_moose bet $4
[Mar 12 10:34 pm:44] : 271277 called $4 and raised $6
[Mar 12 10:35 pm:26] : cdn_moose called $6 and raised $24
[Mar 12 10:35 pm:40] : 271277 folded.
[Mar 12 10:35 pm:41] : cdn_moose wins $27.25 as the last player standing
[Mar 12 10:35 pm:44] : Hand is over.
Nothing too exciting here, but I knew 271277 didn't like me betting into him and then coming back over the top and I was hoping that he would remember this hand next time we got into a big pot.
Sure enough I got the opportunity with this hand about 30 min later:
Easy Virtue 10474659-339115 Holdem No Limit $0.50/$1
[Mar 12 11:02 pm:31] : Hand Start.
[Mar 12 11:02 pm:31] : Seat 1 : 271277 has $158.50
[Mar 12 11:02 pm:31] : Seat 2 : lovemom has $106
[Mar 12 11:02 pm:31] : Seat 3 : claychad11 has $25.75
[Mar 12 11:02 pm:31] : Seat 4 : creepers333 has $23.25
[Mar 12 11:02 pm:31] : Seat 5 : cdn_moose has $138.50
[Mar 12 11:02 pm:31] : Seat 6 : reno15111 has $22
[Mar 12 11:02 pm:31] : claychad11 is the dealer.
[Mar 12 11:02 pm:31] : creepers333 posted small blind.
[Mar 12 11:02 pm:32] : cdn_moose posted big blind.
[Mar 12 11:02 pm:32] : Game [339115] started with 6 players.
[Mar 12 11:02 pm:32] : Dealing Hole Cards.
[Mar 12 11:02 pm:32] : Seat 5 : cdn_moose has 5c 5h
[Mar 12 11:02 pm:35] : reno15111 called $1
[Mar 12 11:02 pm:38] : 271277 called $1 and raised $4
[Mar 12 11:02 pm:41] : lovemom folded.
[Mar 12 11:02 pm:42] : claychad11 folded.
[Mar 12 11:02 pm:43] : creepers333 folded.
[Mar 12 11:02 pm:46] : cdn_moose called $4
Ok so I am not getting odds, but I want to play this hand the same way as previous and if I can hit, I know my implied odds are tremendous. Note how the stacks have changed now and 271277 has the only stack worth playing for. I want to be in hands with this guy.
[Mar 12 11:02 pm:50] : reno15111 called $4
[Mar 12 11:02 pm:51] : Dealing flop.
[Mar 12 11:02 pm:51] : Board cards [2s Ks 2d]
[Mar 12 11:03 pm:30] : cdn_moose bet $12
[Mar 12 11:03 pm:45] : reno15111 has 10 seconds to respond.
[Mar 12 11:03 pm:51] : reno15111 folded.
First of all I want reno out of the hand if he missed or allin so I can take 271277 heads up. Second of all, it is the exact same move I used in the previous hand. I know that if 271277 has nothing, this time he will fold and I can take the pot right here. But if he has hit the flop or has a big overpair, I am hoping he will remember the previous hand, and just flat call to try and take a big pot from me on the turn, giving me another card. I think he knows that if he raises here, like in the previous hand, that I will fold this time.
[Mar 12 11:03 pm:53] : 271277 called $12
Bingo. He must have hit.
[Mar 12 11:03 pm:54] : Dealing turn.
If I don't hit here, I am finished with this hand - so far this hand has cost me $16.
[Mar 12 11:03 pm:54] : Board cards [2s Ks 2d 5s]
[Mar 12 11:03 pm:29] : cdn_moose checked.
Ding. Ding. I check to give 271277 confidence that he has the best hand and give him an opportunity to make a stab at the pot.
[Mar 12 11:03 pm:33] : 271277 bet $16
[Mar 12 11:03 pm:44] : cdn_moose called $16 and raised $40
So I come over the top again on him. Realistically I expected him to fold here, but tilt can be a good thing.
[Mar 12 11:03 pm:52] : 271277 called $40 and raised $85.50 and is All-in
Ding. Ding. Ding.
[Mar 12 11:03 pm:54] : cdn_moose called $65.50 and is All-in
[Mar 12 11:03 pm:54] : Showdown!
[Mar 12 11:03 pm:54] : Seat 5 : cdn_moose has 5c 5h
[Mar 12 11:04 pm:26] : Seat 1 : 271277 has Kd Qs
[Mar 12 11:04 pm:26] : Seat 5 : cdn_moose has 5c 5h
[Mar 12 11:04 pm:31] : Board cards [2s Ks 2d 5s 9c]
[Mar 12 11:04 pm:31] : Seat 1 : 271277 has Kd Qs
[Mar 12 11:04 pm:31] : 271277 has Two Pair: Kings and 2s
[Mar 12 11:04 pm:31] : Seat 5 : cdn_moose has 5c 5h
[Mar 12 11:04 pm:31] : cdn_moose has Full House : 5s full of 2s
[Mar 12 11:04 pm:31] : cdn_moose wins $279.50 with Full House : 5s full of 2s
[Mar 12 11:04 pm:41] : Hand is over.