Loosen up- avoid "bad beats"

My buddy was telling me about how often he is getting bad beated, and always for his tournament life, and they were the usual stories,AA loses to 9-10, AK losing to AQ, and so on and so on. I told him there has to be something hes doing, you cant always be getting busted out with the best hand, so I watched him play and sure enough he was losing with the best hands (preflop).Then it hit me, why is always getting bad beated?...he's only playing premium hands,AA,KK,AK suited, and when you get all your money in preflop and lose with those hands its always going to be a bad beat. I know your probably never going to fold these hands, but when they represent 80% of the hands you play, you dont leave yourself with too many other options that that can lead to a win or cash.Now these hands should hold up, but its not always going to happen the way you hoped..THIS IS POKER. So loosening is the solution we came up with for him.He's using some new plays to his advantage and he is playing more hands now and is cashing more, which is the important thing.... Of course on the other hand, you dont want to play like a complete donkey. Good Luck To All.

It's a matter of perspective. I went through a period where I was getting way more bad beats than I used to. I went through my stats, and it turned out I was playing better. I got my money in with the best hand more often than in the past, and when I got busted out of a tournament, it was most often because of a bad beat. Conversely, my suckouts have gone way down, because I don't need them as much as I did in the past.

Learn to love bad beats. They're a sign that you're a better player.

But, you're right. The fewer hands you play in a tournament, the easier it is to run hot or cold. (remember, it works both ways) The more hands you play, the closer you get to the mean. That's why there's generally more chance involved winning a turbo MTT as opposed to a standard one.

^^^^ this

the only way to get a bad beat is to get your money in with the best hand
just know that eventually things will even out

Poker is gambling which is all about odds and percentages.. But i would rather play a hand out than put everything in right away. So make a 3x or 4x BB raise to eliminate hands like 9 10 ... then just play it out.. unless you are only 5 or 6x the BB and short stacked :P then push

When I play for cash I tend to play a lot of hands extemely aggressive. If I'm playing on the $1/$2 tables at Foxwoods I will play about 50%+ of the hands dealt to me. When I play a hand I raise and I play it aggressive. People say they think I play too loose and too aggressive at cash games. I say I might get "lucky" a lot, but I also get "unlucky" a lot too.

I've called a 10XBB raise with 45suited because I knew that if little cards hit (like 4, 5, 6/3 ect) that I would be in a great position to get the rest of that guys money cause he's probably playing AK AQ JJ QQ KK AA. If I play this way in 10 hands and only win 3 of them, but I win those 3 really big than I believe it's worth it. Now playing this was I've also been bad beat a lot. Mostly in 2 pair being counterfeited or someone hitting their back door flush or similar. I realize that this is my style of play and it works for me. I also realize that playing like this does have it's downs in badbeats (especially post flop badbeats).

Poker secret: it's all not about the cards....

Well.......... as long as you have a couple of em.


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Sometimes:

DS: What about your famous "mystery hand?"
TJC: I was playing pot-limit hold'em down in Shreveport. We'd been playing for quite a few hours and there was a lot of money on the table. A hand came up in which I had the stone nuts on fourth street. I had $5,000 in front of me and made a $2,000 bet. Wayne Edmunds was in the game and he had a habit of putting his head down after he called a bet, so that he never saw what was going on anywhere else. As I was making my bet, the dealer grabbed my cards and threw them in the muck. Of course, Wayne didn't see it happen. "What do I do now?!" I was wondering. I have big hands and so I just kept them out in front of me like I was protecting my cards. The dealer burned and then turned the river card. I bet my last $3,000 and Wayne threw his hand away. I won the pot without any cards! Everybody at the table except Wayne saw what had happened, but nobody said a thing. So, this is what I call my "mystery hand" play.

Wow, Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha....

Wish I'd been there to see that.


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I disagree. I think if you are meant to win a tourney you will win the races you have to win. Otherwise the big hands simply hold up to your garbage and your big hands lose to rags. It's the luck factor of poker.

There's no luck in poker.


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Poker has some luck in it.

I've seen this a few times from you and think I know what you mean , if the hand never comes to showdown then it didn't matter what they were . it's about reading the situation and the players in the hand .


but sometimes the cards have to matter .
I was wondering if you have any links to more on the subject

OK... I'll bite, AG, should you have been allowed to bet once your hand was mucked?

and fyi, Vanquish is selling pictures of you to unsuspecting newbs

I thought AG was quoting T.J. Cloutier(sp?). Is AG actually T.J.? How the?

wat

To be successful in tournaments you need a high degree of luck to get the later stages. He is probably forgetting all the times his hands held up and focuses on his bad beats in the later stages. Say you go all in with aces 5 times during the tournaments vs an under pair. I think this is about standard for a 400 man tournament(well u need at least, 4double ups to make a final table). 1 time in 4 your going to lose with ur aces. Therefore, you need to beat the probability aspect to win it and have some good fortune. Your aces hold you 4times and by the law of probabiliity the fifth time they'll get busted. Also getting all in with marginal hands is a lottery AK vs QJ your a 60/40 and after winning two of these your basically free rolling.

A prime example before was for me, but on cash tables at only 1/2c. Actually, this hurt alot. I was playing 6tables and on one table i had turned $2 into $6 and the others i was about $2 up and it was running well. On the hot table i won an all in with AA vs KK..then won reasonable pot with a set vs an overpair. Then i'm about to leave and i'm all in for $6 with aces vs a guy with 99 and he spikes me on the river. Well, this was marginally unlucky. But if i kept going all in with aces vs an underpair and they had a larger stack. At some point, i was going to get busted. Just in this event it was sooner than expected. Obviously you can't think like this. But man this hand hurt. I lost all my 2hour winnings on one hand. What made it worst, i was setting up this manaic up for it. It was more about revenge, as he out played me on a few flops and i thougth i'd finally got him

Well^^ i needed to get that off my chest haha. Back to the bottom of the mountain again and gl with the tournies.