Beating myself, when does it get better???

Okay, I make it to the final table, or final two. I beat myself with bad calls or out of position bets....this learning curve is a pain. Grrrr.

Yes I have won a few tourneys, but not near as many as I should considering I have a chip lead or am in top 5. One oof the last games I played tonight, I had a good chip lead, I had AK late, raised 4x, the bb (tight player) went all in, I knew he must have a pair, he did, 10s. I caught him on the flop, he got a 10 on the turn, the rest is history. The point is, I could have easily waited for another hand where I had a better advantage. I put my chip lead at risk to often...and I hurt or cripple my chip stack....and I become the bubble child or place low in the money...

Any advice or experience would be appreciated.

Annie, I wouldn't beat yourself up over it. MTT poker is a grueling experience and a lot of luck is involved. Sometimes you will make the right calls and people will hit their 2/3-outers against, and then you lose 2-3 coinflips in a row and you're out. Sometimes you'll get it in dominated and get lucky.

The key to MTT poker is not making one or two moves or laydowns particular to the situation, but making the right decision based on pot odds and your equity vs. someone's likely range. In most cases if you have already raised with AK, and there are antes and lots of dead money in the pool, it's rarely going to be correct to lay it down just because you "put them on a pair."

Esp. if you are raising in late position vs. the BB, he is going to give you less credit and the tight BB will sometimes show up lighter than you'd expect (Don't you think he could have AQ there?).

I'm not saying you never lay down AK or avoid huge confrontations when you're flipping at best, but if you always make laydowns like this, people will start making moves on you.

The key to MTTs is getting to the Final Table with a good chip stack. IT's going to be frustrating when you play well for several hours only to bubble or barely place in the money. But your goal is always to make the FT and esp. get into the top 5 spots. Because those rare times when you do will make up for all the frustrating bustouts.

Even top pros can't always wait for "a better spot." Remember when Scotty Nguyen looked like he was going to make the final table with a great chip stack, he ended up tilting it all off in two hands and finished 11th. Allen Cunningham had to make a stand against Jamie Gold when he knew he was good but was only a slight favorite.

So don't worry about one or two decisions like these, you're going to have to keep making them over and over again; sometimes they'll work out and sometimes they won't. There's nothing you can do to control the way the cards fall.

This sounds simple, but sometimes the answer is. Even when you think you have an auto-call, just take a little while to figure out the situation before each move, rather than going on instinct. For instance, with the hand you mentioned, if you took a little while to think about it, you probably would have thought threw that it wasn't worth making the call, and you would still have had the chip lead.

The age old question! lol!...And, sad to say, it will probably cost a bit more in money and playing time before you feel comfortable.

I'm surely not the one to try to teach anyone, so perhaps if you've identified an area u are weak, check the different teaching areas of some poker forums, or ask which book might help.

My biggest problem was doing well in a trny, but when the blinds got large, I'd crash and burn...and I didn't know why... and of course nobody could tell me anything because I already knew it all.

Then I figured out the biggest piece of my puzzle..

Position...Position...Position!!!

I started to win at ring games and cash semiregularly in MTT's, with the occasional win. I haven't managed the big cash win yet, but have come soooo close!!!

2009 goal... 5 digit cash in a trny!!

yes - position... patience... position... patience... postion... patience, sometimes its hard, often it seems like I am in autofold, but right timing and playing positon brought me most times to the top

KA, the standard loser.

When you are near or at the finals, why go all-in ?
- Because 'you know, you will win'.
- Because you need to steal the blinds, if possible, as you are low-stacked.

I don't think, calling an all-in with KA is a bad move, but one very certain to lose. I feel, you must always be prepared for that. A favourite quote from a pro is : "Never go all-in KA". I never do and I hardly call all-in pre-flop with that hand. Naturally, it depends on position and the history of previous flops; haven't I seen any K's or A's for a while ?

What can KA become ? A straight ? ... hardly. It is the 'dead end street'. A full-house ? Well ... I see more straight flushes, then a full with KA present. So, actually, you gamble on getting the A at the flop.

When I get KA, I always get worried; I know it is a standard loser, yet, it is too hard to fold. What I will try is to get to the flop. When I see an ace there, I go and check, as I don't want others to know, I might have it.

You 'had to call', topicstarter and that is a logical reaction. I, however, feel more happy calling an all-in with JK suited.

One more thing; don't think, you will aways need to play the table. My nickname for poker is 'folding'. I find it hard, to fold a very good card, just before the finals; but I'd rather reach the finals with a little less stack, then being kicked out

also useful information if you want feedback is the level structure...your stack and villians stack size in comparison to the blinds and antes

so much context is needed to get the highest quality feedback... from what you describe it sounds like you knew you were in a race... if you think you are better than opponents in this spot maybe you should tend to fold and produce a better spot.

if you think you are worse then a coinflip is more attractive

gl

Here's a question for you. do you play to win or just play to place? If you play to win and your down to 5 players
then AK is a high equity allin and the only thing that really has it dominated is AA or KK and if you spike a A you have KK beat you take the odds of hitting an A or K on the board which is 65% of the time and your in good shape unless he hits his set like you said he did which happens 1 and 9 times you have a PP you actually had the better shot at hitting your hand then he did at hitting his set so you did the right thing so late in the tourney if you play to win? That's the big question though.

Yes anne. I notice this a lot with all sites. I find that if you get ace King best move is to not get greedy and sit back. a lot of the time you will get burnt on these hands. wait till you see you have a decent hand first then wait for the others to raise. You may lose a lot of pots and only win lower amounts but when at final table this is very important to keep your funds in tact.

Anne... great advice from baudib1 here!! The rest of the posts???.... I don't think they have much of an idea of what you're even talking about, lol.
It's frustrating going deep in a decent tourney, sitting in good shape only to see it go in a few hands. Final table & final 2tables of a fair-sized mtt are quite volatile. IMO you had to make the call.
Don't get down on yourself about the results... just re-affirm that you make the mathematically correct play. Hey.. you're getting deep in tourneys... the big cash will come. Way to go!!
Often times if watching a larger buyin mtt final couple of tables play out, usually the one's placing in top 3 are the ones who are quite active. Sure some of them go busto but I do believe it is working for them as well.
GL in your next one!!

It is a skill in tournament poker, not only to accumulate chips, but to avoid losing chips. When I first began playing tourney poker i was very very careful not to throw away my chips that took me so long to get. AK for me personally is a very good DRAWING hand and I would push with it more when I was the smaller chip stack, rather than the chip leader. Maybe thats why I did so much better at tounament poker back then. I get too comfy calling all-ins now, mostly due to seeing it all the time online, so my live tourney play has suffered recently. Actually I like the cash games now and tournaments frustrate the heck out of me. But i don`t think you can go wrong by choosing patience, especially when you have a good amount of chips. Good Luck! Better days are ahead.