[Dissolved]

Yes, JoJo I'm ranting on myself about my recent poker play. Since I started playing cash games bi-weekely and sometimes 4-6 times a month in mid 2006 my tournament play suffered badly. Don't believe me? Look at my History on the CT thrusday night tournaments. I cashed a good amount of times, won 2, etc etc in the first Q I played. I Donked the QTC but won the Paulson New Yorker Private Tournament. Anyways, Tonight after watching a few PAD esp's I decided to put money into FTP and play only tournaments. From 11pm to now (440am) I played a few random tournaments.
5.50 90player DS Placed 6th won 24.75
5.50 6max placed 1st won 19.50
I played 4 other tournaments all turbos and got donked out early. 5hours of poker and earning a nickle short of 6.00 isn't to bad. Sad part is im down alot at FTP infact its really only 2 of the poker sites I'm - on. Poker tracker Doesn't seem to work well with FTP, so I guess I will have to log myself my tournaments

Im not sure If anyone has gone through this, But I'm young and still learning the game and about myself. Hope maybe 1 or 2 out of the 5k members enjoyed the read. but If this post sucks, Its 5am and I'm trying to get sleeply.

Discuss?

[VARoadstter]

Well, I've watched you play a lot in CT tournies and you gamble like a fiend. When fortune smiles down on you you do well. Other times, not so much. I think you get some advantages from this, including getting a lot of action, but in general you have your stack, or a large part of it, at risk an awful lot. In the end, your results will tend to gravitate towards the underlying odds of of the showdowns you get into.

You said you were working on your game - what aspect?

When you say you donked out early - were you the donk or did some idiot run you down?

[w16227]

Ditto to VAR -

if you are relaly looking to improve you will need to post more information. What hands are you haveing issue with (post histories)? What part of the game do you need help with (beginning, middle , FT etc).

Also - to truly improve, you will need to be very open to suggestions and really focus on the shortcomings of your game. Simply bcause you had a good run during one season of the CT games does not make you a good tournament player. I saw many many hands where you had absolutely no business seeing a flop, yet luckboxed into winning a monster pot. I am one of the flagbears for SMART loose aggressive play, but there are still underlying strategies that should be followed. I saw many times where you defended your play with really no fundamental reason to other than you won the pot. The problem is that you justified bad decisions with the short term results.


First things first - normalize on one tournament style. 6 player sng, double shootouts and turbos are all different beasts. Proper inital stratedy can be vastly different. Pick one you like (I would NOT recommend any type of turbo) to start the work. One or two table SnG are quick and can teach a lot about decent tournament play.

As for PT and fulltilt - I seem to have no problems with hand histories. You need to click on the "save hand history" option in FTP and pount tracker in the right direction. They also allow you to datamine (pull hh from tables you are not playing at). This is actually one of the better sites for PT.

[jojobinks]

you might not believe this, dissolved, but i do:
if you had your pick of a single pro to play in every CT tourny for a year, i'd bet you 3:2 that this pro wouldn't have a quarter bigger than the one you had in quarter one of this year.

in 11 tournies, you had 2 wins, 9 final tables (plus a tenth place), 2 seconds, 2 fourths and a third. you had 351 qtoc points. in the 6 quarters of total play, there have only been 10 finishes of 200+ for a quarter, and none others higher than 243. you beat that by nearly 50%.

so...we need to decide what's more likely here:
1) you ran ungodly hot for 3 months of play, which in reality is less than 3000 hands (and therefore very much the short term).
or
2) you are far and away the best player ever to play a CT tourny. however, after one quarter of absolutely dominating the competition, you started playing cash games, and now your tourny game is ruined.

as noticed very very often in poker boards (usually re: rigged posts), our brains are pattern-finding machines, even when data is random. it's normal, natural, for us to find cause/effect where it doesn't necessarily lie.

so, diss...maybe you can just think on this. i've talked to you plenty (more than anyone else here?), and i suspect you'll brush it off. but maybe you'll think on it.

[Dissolved]

The first Q I Didn't Play as many hands as I did in Q2. Q2 I started calling small rasies with any 2 suited cards and fish for flushes. I recall of me hitting a few, but I tried to hard and lost early having to go allin to keep pace and failed.
In tournaments I used to be a really tight player. cash games started getting in my mind to play hands like Q8s, 34s, etc etc which made me lose too many chips early in rounds. which would make me have to push allin with any pair or ak.

Last night I actually Folded 2 big hands in the FT of that 90player DS tournament. there was 8 left, I had 9k in chips and the blinds were 600 1200 with a 200 ante or something like that. I was SB and a guy to my Right rasied 6k when I held Pocket 9's, I thought for a while and folded. No one called his rasied, but i either lose about 800 chips and hope someone else busts or i risk it all and double up. Risking it would only given me around 20k which was still far from the 3 chip leaders 40k 80k 40k. 2 people ended up getting knocked out in the next 5 hands, and I ended up pushing all in with 6 players left when I was BB with QJs and the SB rasied me with 8s or something. Well i got no paint and lost. but i think folding poc 9s was either one of the better folds I've made online, or It was stupid. Either way, I beat 84people the most I've beaten in a tournament online in a very long time.

In any event, Im going to stay away from cash games. Tournaments will be all I play from now on I hope.

[jojobinks]

you were not a tight player in your huge quarter:

i have you at 32% vpip, which is at least time and a half what i'd call a tight player.

i don't have a ton of hands on you. there is this gem though. good tight play

POKERSTARS GAME #4764231736: TOURNAMENT #23782373, $10+$1 HOLD'EM NO LIMIT - LEVEL I (10/20) - 2006/04/27 - 21:42:56 (ET)
Table '23782373 4' 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: J.5. (1920 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 2: mwfeldman (1530 in chips)
Seat 3: DaveHNK (1950 in chips)
Seat 4: wbernie (1450 in chips)
Seat 5: chaude (1440 in chips)
Seat 6: megabit88 (1350 in chips)
Seat 7: RaiderJoe40 (1180 in chips)
Seat 8: Craiture (1450 in chips)
Seat 9: Dissolved14 (1140 in chips)
J.5.: posts small blind 10
mwfeldman: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mwfeldman [As Ad]
DaveHNK: folds
wbernie: folds
chaude: calls 20
megabit88: folds
RaiderJoe40: folds
Craiture: folds
Dissolved14: calls 20
J.5.: folds
mwfeldman: raises 60 to 80
chaude: folds
Dissolved14: calls 60
*** FLOP *** [2s Jh 6d]
mwfeldman: bets 100
Dissolved14: calls 100
*** TURN *** [2s Jh 6d] [8d]
mwfeldman: bets 200
Dissolved14: calls 200
*** RIVER *** [2s Jh 6d 8d] [9d]
mwfeldman: checks
Dissolved14: bets 760 and is all-in
mwfeldman: calls 760
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Dissolved14: shows [2d 7d] (a flush, Nine high)
mwfeldman: shows [As Ad] (a pair of Aces)
Dissolved14 collected 2310 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2310 | Rake 0
Board [2s Jh 6d 8d 9d]
Seat 1: J.5. (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: mwfeldman (big blind) showed [As Ad] and lost with a pair of Aces
Seat 3: DaveHNK folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: wbernie folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: chaude folded before Flop
Seat 6: megabit88 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: RaiderJoe40 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: Craiture folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: Dissolved14 (button) showed [2d 7d] and won (2310) with a flush, Nine high

[Dissolved]

Im actually proud of that beat. you weak rasied preflop. not even a pot size bet on the flop, but I had 72s!

72 SUITTTTTEEEEEEEEEDDDDD!! lmao...

[jojobinks]

Originally Posted by Dissolved

Im actually proud of that beat. you weak rasied preflop. not even a pot size bet on the flop, but I had 72s!

72 SUITTTTTEEEEEEEEEDDDDD!! lmao...

Originally Posted by w16227

I saw many many hands where you had absolutely no business seeing a flop, yet luckboxed into winning a monster pot...I saw many times where you defended your play with really no fundamental reason to other than you won the pot. The problem is that you justified bad decisions with the short term results.

i quote w above for my answer.

[trutan]

Originally Posted by Dissolved

Im actually proud of that beat. you weak rasied preflop. not even a pot size bet on the flop, but I had 72s!

72 SUITTTTTEEEEEEEEEDDDDD!! lmao...

4xBB = Weak Raise pre-flop ?????

Please explain.

[jojobinks]

Originally Posted by trutan

4xBB = Weak Raise pre-flop ?????

Please explain.

dude, don't you know you're s'posed to raise more with your good hands and less with your bad hands?

i was representing like a 77 type hand here, from his pov. so the 27 seemed pretty good.