Extremely bad run tonight

funkymunky

Playing on PStars tonight, NL tourney. Only lasted 29 hands. Never saw an ace, never hit pocket pairs. Literally, when ever I did hit anything remotely interesting, flopped nothing. Won all of one hand.

If you will indulge me, my hand history:

1. 4c5h 9. Th2s 17. ThJh 25. 7s4s
2. QsJh 10. Kd9c 18. 2dKh 26. Kc7d
3. 5hQh 11. 3c8c 19. 5c2d 27. Kd3h
4. 9hQs 12. 6cKs 20. 9d3c 28. Qh9s
5. 2h5d 13. 8sJd 21. 8s2d 29. 7s8d
6. JdTc 14. 7sJd 22. 4h2s
7. KcQd 15. 5h3s 23. 3s8d
8. 2c5h 16. Qc6d 24. 7c5d

I was glad when it was over.

Hork42

You are playing bad hands too aggressively to bust out in 29 hands

Wolffhound

you went broke in 3 orbits...blinds presumably at 10/20 to start...simply too impatient

Depending on position and who was in already, I'd probably have played hands 2,6,7,17, but, again,
depending on position, I may have only played hand 7 and doubt I'd have gone broke with it.

Actual hand history may help more to see where exactly you threw your chips away and why.

But again, based on the hands shown, you could have been simply down 150 chips in blinds and ready to start to build on hand 30.

SirWatts

I have played tournaments where I 've seen one flop in the first 50-60 hands (and it might have been from a blind). It's always fun to see how low you can get that % flops seen # in your stats over a large number of hands. Just gotta suck it up and be patient.

pkrfce9

Do you have to have good hands to win every pot in NL?

Note to the guys I frequently play against: I always have a good hand when I'm in the pot. Always!

Wolffhound

pkrfce9,

No, of course you don't.

Would you be happy going broke in 29 hands cause you brilliantly played shit and lost?

pkrfce9

But how could it have been played brilliantly?

I'm oversimplifying things. Of course you are going to need decent cards your fair share of the time. But you can go quite far with some pretty bad cards, too.

Chugs

I think especially at the early stages of tournies, there is nothing wrong with mucking around (carefully) with speculative hands if you can see a cheap flop.

I find i play lots of hands in those first orbits, it also helps to confuse those abservant players into thinking i'm a loose-passive player who must limp a lot and play lots of hands

Now i think the trick is playing small pot poker when taking that approach.

But i don't win much, so don't put that much weight into what i'm saying

Wolffhound

pkrfce9 wrote:

I'm oversimplifying things.

So was I.

Mucking around as Chugs said or limping here and there playing some small pots is fine, looking at that string of 29 hands, I don't see how you go broke which is why I said he was being too impatient.

Even if he blew off 1/3 of his stack, chances are the blinds are still at 25/50 and he has 20BB left to build it back up.

I'd be interested to see the # of hands funkymonkey played and how they played out.

-ANTE RIVER-

If you are complaining about bad cards in 29 hands you've got a lot to learn about the game itself and
tourneys.  

Shut off the stats - average stack, chip leader etc. and be patient.  Do not worry about being
230th out of 250 people.  This means nothing in the first 2 or even 3 hours of a tourney.  The players that
do well and end in the top 10% are patient, maybe doubling up once or even twice an hour...but that's it.

So, one or two 'great' hands an hour is all you need, but play wise with the hands that aren't stong starters.
Pick and choose.  Don't be afraid to limp in with 'bad cards' when in the blinds or when pot odds are in your favour,
but learn to dump the 'second' best hand.  Don't put your tourney at risk on draws when the odds aren't there.  

You need to set 'survival' goals to see what it takes to get deep in a tourney.  Even a stack that is away form the start,
blinding out, will last the first hour of most tourneys.  

Give yourself a chance by trying to survive to break 1, break 2 etc.  This doesn't mean play weak and toss everything but
the best hands, but it does mean learn how to play position.  While you're spending all your time tossing bad cards away,
take interest in what all the other players are doing.  Put the players in 'boxes' as they say and use this to make your move
when the situation is right.  

Something I do when I find myself getting bored or impatient with hands is open up a SNG at the same time.  I'll play two tourneys
at once.  If I get a lot of action on one table, or need to really concentrate, I'll simply stand up from one of the tables for a while.
Works great unless you find yourself heads-up on two tables at once

It sounds like you simply need to play and read a heck of a lot more before you're really ready to seriously take on this game...
Good Luck!  

(P.S. - I personally haven't made a fortune playing MMT's, but consistently reach top 5-10%.  I'm still learning how to close the
deal on these, but the SNG exprience really helps when you are down to a few players)

RAM_Eh

I also don't see anything to go broke on in these hands. I only see three hands I would have liked to see the flop with.

Be more patient.

I played a $ 100 + 9 at Party and went 72 hands without playing my first hand.

I am not saying I didn't want to play but there were always very good reasons not to be able to see the flop. I got dealt JJ on hand 74 and went bust against AA.

harthgosh

wat is extremely bad about this? you played bad hands and lost. u get aces one ever couple hundred hands
I actually think you had a good run, for your competition.

QueenNine

In SnG's and MTT's I usually find myself at or near the bottom of the field up until the first break. Then I slowly end up scratching and clawing my way back up towards the middle of the pack around the second break.

Patience is a huge part of winning these tourny's. If you have the patience, you will have the rewards at the end. As someone once said to me at a B&M, "You can Muck any 2 cards".

funkymunky

A post-script:

Thanks everyone for your criticism. Special thanks particularly to one of you for the PM's. Suffice to say, you were right - I was being wayyy too impatient, playing just for the sake of playing. (I have been playing for around 3-4 months, so I admit my newbie status) I have decided not to post actual hands (although I do have the hand histories) - it would only confirm what you guys already know, and I wouldn't want to be subjected to any flames!

I have tightened up considerably, and the results have been more than encouraging. I am now consistently finishing just out of or in the small change in MMT's. I have won one 3 table SNG.

It is hard to be patient some times, but I am committed to waiting for the cards. I still find that I have a hard time letting go of certain hands. My KK has run into more than a few AA.

And in that SNG tourney, I basically fluked the win. Heads-up seems to be a whole different ballgame (from my limited experience at it)

Thanks again. I really like the advice on this forum.

ChipFish

funkymunky wrote:

A post-script:
I have decided not to post actual hands (although I do have the hand histories) - it would only confirm what you guys already know, and I wouldn't want to be subjected to any flames!

For every 4-5 flames, you'll get someone who offers you some good advice.
Best way to learn is to post your HHs (without) the showdown or results.
The feedback you may get will be one of the best ways you can improve...

If that is still not your style, find a player that you know is good and is willing to help you and do this privately.

funkymunky

I just had to update!

I won a 45-person SNG tonight!! A big thank you to everyone for their feedback - it really came through. Was as patient as I've been in a long time, and really got some brakes when I was short stacked. Was 15th out of 15 at one point, just hoping to make the final table. Made a few buddies who commented on my comeback. I'll have to take a look at the HH, because I really pulled a few out of my azz.

It was just a stupid little $1 SNG, but still feels great!

And, as ScottyZ can affirm, I had posted about a rather cold session of limit HE earlier tonight, when I simply could not hit a flop.

Anyways, thanks again for the feedback!

Jamie
(aka King_Jamz on PS)