I was trolling through 2+2 today and came across a thread and response that hit home.
Original Thread:
How do you..
So last night I came pretty close to my first BIG cash, I haven't been an MTT player for long, about a month now.
First time i've really been that close to a large amount of money, but managed to go out in 13th, after being top 5 for a long time.
How do you guys deal with this? As i'm sure you've experienced it before.
I just generally feel like **** today, so close and the money I won doesn't seem to matter at all!
Just feel like that big MTT win will never come around..
Thanks
- Lncredible
Response:
if you don't have thick skin in this game you will never be as successful as you want to be. So many good players limit themselves b/c they dwell on their beats and misfortunes. You just have to let it go.
- M1cKmAcK
This is definitely something that I needed to read. I've been running like shit all year on full tilt and now that run bad is spilling over to PokerStars. Gotta try to stay positive and keep my cool during this downswing. Hopefully, it'll all come together when I'm on the verge of that huge score.
Good Luck!
Showing posts with label poker strategy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label poker strategy. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Relative Position
I'm constantly trying to improve my game by reading forums, articles and occasionally a few chapters in a book. Today, I stumbled across an article posted on pokernews that really lit a few light bulbs for me. This isn't anything that I haven't thought about or recognized during a tournament, but it was well written and very useful info to keep in mind while playing.
Here's an excerpt:
"An important aspect in an MTT is position. Most players understand the importance of being in a good position and play accordingly. However, many players only focus on their absolute position. So is there another position? Yes, this is your relative position. Your absolute position is your position before the flop. UTG is early position and the button is late position. Your relative position is your position after the flop with respect to the initial raiser. During the early stages of a MTT (especially one with a low buy-in) you will often find yourself in 5-way pot. Try to make it easy for yourself after the flop. Let's say you're in level one of a guaranteed tournament and you get a nice drawing hand
on the button. Your first thought: "Nice, I have ace crackers in the best position." Then you get the following situation: blinds are 10/20, UTG limps, MP and MP+1 limp as well and the cutoff raises to 100. ..........You have a great position here preflop, but after the flop you are in the worst relative position. ..........But look what happens when you call here. Once you call, the other players will be getting good odds, and you will see that, in most cases, the rest of the limpers will call as well. In this situation the big blind calls, as well as MP and MP+1. The flop shows 
, so it's not a bad flop. If the cutoff has 
you can stack him here if, for example, a 
shows up on the turn. But what happens? Everyone often checks to the initial raiser, after whom you are next to act, with 3 players still to act behind you after the initial raiser fired out a C-Bet.
As you can see you are in the worst relative position in this situation, and many players often make the mistake and call with their straight-draws, after which the other players are free to check-raise and pick up the dead money you left in the pot. ..........If we take the example from just now but have you sitting in MP+1, you would be in the best relative position, as all the other player would have to act before you after the initial raiser bet, after which you have a lot more information to base your decision on. This will save you chips that you will definitely need in the later stages of the tournament.
- Robert Jan Hoogendoorn"
Read Full Article
Here's an excerpt:
"An important aspect in an MTT is position. Most players understand the importance of being in a good position and play accordingly. However, many players only focus on their absolute position. So is there another position? Yes, this is your relative position. Your absolute position is your position before the flop. UTG is early position and the button is late position. Your relative position is your position after the flop with respect to the initial raiser. During the early stages of a MTT (especially one with a low buy-in) you will often find yourself in 5-way pot. Try to make it easy for yourself after the flop. Let's say you're in level one of a guaranteed tournament and you get a nice drawing hand
on the button. Your first thought: "Nice, I have ace crackers in the best position." Then you get the following situation: blinds are 10/20, UTG limps, MP and MP+1 limp as well and the cutoff raises to 100. ..........You have a great position here preflop, but after the flop you are in the worst relative position. ..........But look what happens when you call here. Once you call, the other players will be getting good odds, and you will see that, in most cases, the rest of the limpers will call as well. In this situation the big blind calls, as well as MP and MP+1. The flop shows , so it's not a bad flop. If the cutoff has you can stack him here if, for example, a shows up on the turn. But what happens? Everyone often checks to the initial raiser, after whom you are next to act, with 3 players still to act behind you after the initial raiser fired out a C-Bet. As you can see you are in the worst relative position in this situation, and many players often make the mistake and call with their straight-draws, after which the other players are free to check-raise and pick up the dead money you left in the pot. ..........If we take the example from just now but have you sitting in MP+1, you would be in the best relative position, as all the other player would have to act before you after the initial raiser bet, after which you have a lot more information to base your decision on. This will save you chips that you will definitely need in the later stages of the tournament.
- Robert Jan Hoogendoorn"
Read Full Article
Saturday, August 16, 2008
What Would Daniel Do? (WWDD) 8/15/08
Well, tonight I actually played poker with people that I can see. LOL. I played in our weekly home game. As I've mentioned in previous posts, I'm trying to transition to be more of a small ball player. I've read Daniel Negreanu's Small Ball chapter in his latest book to try and help with learning the style. He is probably the poster child for this style of play. Undoubtedly, there will be some growing pains coming from more of a long ball style.
Here is the situation in question.
We started with $5k stacks. The levels are 30 minutes. At this point in time, the blinds are 75/150, I have about $3600 in chips and I am the big blind. We are 8-handed. A loose passive lady(UTG+3) limps for $150, the button a solid player that hasn't been out of line makes it $550. The small blind folds. I look down at AKo. There is $925 in the pot and about 15 minutes left in this level. The limper can have a very wide range of hands. I think her range includes Ace rag, small pairs, small connectors and hands like KT, QT, JT. If she had a big broadway hand or premium pair she would raise. The button wouldn't raise with a very wide range. Something like, 88+, KJ+, AT+. Obviously, I can't fold. So my dilemma was, do I raise or do I call? If I raise, how much?
The limper had about $4k behind and the button had about $7k. The pot represented just shy of a third of my stack. After posting the blind, I had 23 big blinds remaining. If I had around 10 BBs, this would be an obvious shove. My stack size is in the tricky area for me, 15-25 BBs. Raise folding would be a horrible play, so I decided to shove to "resteal". Unfortunately, the button wasn't trying to steal the pot. He woke up with Aces and they held. GG Me.
I try not to be results oriented. Of course, if I knew he had Aces, I would have folded. My questions around this hand are in relation to my "new" style of MTT play. Since I am trying to be a small ball player, should i have just called the $400 and see what developed on the flop? Everything that I have read from Negreanu emphasizes keeping the pot small. But he also stresses playing in position. So I was faced with keeping the pot small, but having to play the hand out of position or take my usual long ball approach and try to take down the pot right there. So my question is What Would Daniel Do?
Here is the situation in question.
We started with $5k stacks. The levels are 30 minutes. At this point in time, the blinds are 75/150, I have about $3600 in chips and I am the big blind. We are 8-handed. A loose passive lady(UTG+3) limps for $150, the button a solid player that hasn't been out of line makes it $550. The small blind folds. I look down at AKo. There is $925 in the pot and about 15 minutes left in this level. The limper can have a very wide range of hands. I think her range includes Ace rag, small pairs, small connectors and hands like KT, QT, JT. If she had a big broadway hand or premium pair she would raise. The button wouldn't raise with a very wide range. Something like, 88+, KJ+, AT+. Obviously, I can't fold. So my dilemma was, do I raise or do I call? If I raise, how much?
The limper had about $4k behind and the button had about $7k. The pot represented just shy of a third of my stack. After posting the blind, I had 23 big blinds remaining. If I had around 10 BBs, this would be an obvious shove. My stack size is in the tricky area for me, 15-25 BBs. Raise folding would be a horrible play, so I decided to shove to "resteal". Unfortunately, the button wasn't trying to steal the pot. He woke up with Aces and they held. GG Me.
I try not to be results oriented. Of course, if I knew he had Aces, I would have folded. My questions around this hand are in relation to my "new" style of MTT play. Since I am trying to be a small ball player, should i have just called the $400 and see what developed on the flop? Everything that I have read from Negreanu emphasizes keeping the pot small. But he also stresses playing in position. So I was faced with keeping the pot small, but having to play the hand out of position or take my usual long ball approach and try to take down the pot right there. So my question is What Would Daniel Do?
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