OK, here it goes... I BELIEVE that i'm a pretty good player at poker. I play tight, usually waiting for pocket pairs or aceking and sometimes acequeen. 2 months ago is when i first set up an account on
Bodog Poker to begin playing online poker. Eventually, i joined
full tilt and pokerstars. Anyways, when i started, i was getting knocked out early in tournaments on my behind. 3000 entrants and i would finish in 1500th place or something. Anyways, i kept at it, stop playing so many connectors and fishing for straights and straight flushes. 2 months in, and with patience i can finish in any cash tourney i play in. NOW heres the problem. I sit there, playing very tight poker, watching how people bet and how fast they call and everything. Like i said before, i can reach the in the money stage of the tourney. HOW i get there is the problem. I'm playing tight, waiting for good cards and all of a sudden the big blind has hit me like ten times and my stack is dwindling. right when i'm about to run out of chips, and the blinds are like at 1,000-2000, and the ante is in the 100's, i find a way to survive. I play like less than 15% of the hands i see in every tournament. i constantly find myself at the table with the small stack and all the other players have like 7 and 8 times more chips than me. But i say to myself, why is my stack not as high as theres? If i see 20 flops out of 200, i've won like 5 of those and the other 15 the flop missed me and i'm folding. basically what i'm saying is that the blind takes my chips away not the players. So my question to my fellow railbirds is this-how do you guys make it to the final tables? How do you build those big stacks? Do you play looser than me? Should I play looser? Just please, ANY advice or critisism on my game is much appreciated... i'm not greedy, if I could just learn how to make it to final tables and cash out 50,100, or even 200 dollars in place money, i would be happy. kinda tired of playing for 4 hours and making like 3 or four dollars for finishing 22nd or 30th..... HELP!!
Thanks In Advance, i will take every word of knowledge to heart, i want to be considered a GREAT poker player, even at 23 years young
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17 comments
well your doing something right if your consistently making the money. Tight tourney play i find is always the most rewarding in the long run. Have you read much on tournament strategy and stealing blinds when the ante stages come later on if you need to build your stack to survive and have a chance at making the bigger money spots and final tables. You just have to be cautious and observant when trying these moves.
Ive found phil gordons tourney strategy quite good and hellmuths one aswell. Most good poker books have good sections but I am still reading up on others. If you havnt done this then definatley read up and get some ideas. It helped me quite a bit. If you want, I have loads of ebooks so i can email u a few good ones if you want or ill give you the link to download them for yourself. Should certainly help you out a bit id say.
Let me know if you want them, all the best.
sounds to me like you play too conservative....which should be a good thing...plus outstanding patience. Im kinda in the same place....I have found playing better with position has tremendous help in growing my stack. 1 key element is watching how each player plays.....and knowing when to make your move. in late position...on or just before the button...if all players fold and you have a decent hand...bet 2-3x's the blind...if the blinds don't have you dominated with their chipsatck. Its by no means a sure fire way of taking blinds....but its something. Also...play in 1-table sng's....micro buy ins. Its a great (fairly cheap) way of practice at all phases of a tourney...right down to heads up. Its a great way to train yourself on player tendancies and soon you will get a feel for the way each particular player plays... Throwing yourself into a huge 3000plus player tourney is a tough bridge to cross. Sharpen your skills at a small table and work your way up.
---Good Luck----
That another thing right there too, your right as you say that you and everyone else focuses on cashing/then winning. Sometimes right when it gets down to the bubble stages is a great time to push people off hands that you can see are just waiting to cash. All play tightens up at them stages so it can be a good time to start pushing and making chips with marginal hands. If you end up getting called you will bust or probably double up, so its a gamble sometimes you might want to take to not just make the money, but go that bit further. But if you play it cautious you can gain lots of chips in those situations.
Then the minute the money spots hit, all the small stacks lossen up, and you can wait for good spots to gain more chips. Ive tryed it before and ive gotten caught out or else ive won lots of chips.
once you get in second hour you need to open your play, can't wait only for big hands to play, otherwise you get exactly in the situation. what exactly to play and when to push really depends on your read of the table, if it is passive try to push with wider range, if they are aggressive sit back and wait for the good hand and don't hesitate to move when you get it.
I see what you mean, but the second hour is still only the early stages of a tourney and you dont have to vary your play too much in my experience. You can only play the stack in front of you and this should always determine how you approach certain hands, not the clock or lenght of the tourney.
No we all have this problem from time to time. I too find myself wondering why I've allowed myself to get blinded out or pushed around. I'm going to touch on one certain part of your blog here about not calling/fishing for draws. WARNING:THIS IS AN OPINION: I agree with cozman about gambling. I think that in certain situations you want to call on draws/gamble, be it open ended str8, flush, etc. There are instances where pot odds, implied odds, etc make it worth it to call sometimes. A great strategy I was taught by another railbird is to reraise if you think someone is weak and your on a draw (flush preferrably). This gives u 2 chances to win, they fold or you hit. It's also a great disguse for your hand but still a dangerous move and costly if it doesn't hit. Read up on pot size vs. odds, betting strategys etc to really hone your game. In regards to books, Harrington on Hold'em is rated the #1 book but I like David Scklanskis (sp?) 'Texas Holdem theroy and practice' , but Daniel Negreanu's POKERVT online is better than that...Worth checking out...Can't say as i've been much help, but hey I try...lol
Id have to disagree with you im afraid amber. The idea is not to win the most chips as fast as possible, its about winning the most chips over the course of the whole tournament, tournament poker is survival, not a race.
I agree of course that if you do win lots of chips early on, then your in a great position, but a loose approach in the early stages, which i have also tryed and tested, will run you into trouble and have you busted or shortstacked early more times than a patient approach in the early stages.
Thats just my experience but if it works for you, then who am i to argue. Just saying from my experience. all the best
Peace
Playing late position strong can usually help keep the chip stack intact. Don't be afraid to bet out with nothing, if you are last to act, and it is checked around to you. I think this is the single largest reason people don't go deeper, they don't play their position strong enough, and end up losing blinds when they can't afford to !
....Play On... Tc....