when you're not hitting cards

Recently i've played a few tournaments that started out great, i gained a lot of chips and seemed to be hitting cards fairly often. then after the first break or so i cant seem to hit anything. i get dealt rags for 30+ hands in a row, and the blinds start to eat up my big stack. the few hands i do play i totally miss the board, and have to fold. is there any way to fight this besides sitting out? i seem to have this problem a lot, especially recently i'm noticing. so far it's killed my chances for making the money, let alone winning, for the past 3 or 4 tourneys i've entered. any thoughts about what to do here?

it sounds like you're either getting over-confident, or playing too tight after the break. you shouldn't sit out, imo. if you're tired of playing or frustrated because you don't seem to be getting any hands then fold,fold,fold until you get premium cards. even if you're stack is a little below 30 blinds.
i've come back from having 2 blinds left in my stack ($600/$1200 blinds)and made it to the final table. that was a really interesting game. lots of adrenaline. very exciting

I've had a bad run the last three days, seems like I can't win any coin flip. The best thing to do is use your position to steal blinds, to keep your stack in somewhat good shape. Be aggressive, just because you arn't hitting the flop doesn't mean other people are. If everyone checks to you on the flop, throw out a bet, see where you stand. You will be surprised how many small pots you can take doing that. My strategy is to keep my stack where it is by using my position and waiting for my spot to get a good hand to double up. I keep an eye on the average stack size and if things arn't running good, I try to do what I can to stay around the average stack size. Keep in mind the average stack size is the amounts of chips devided by the number of players left in the tournament. A few very large stacks can make that number off. So I also use my table as a gage. I want to be atleast the top three in chips at my table.

So use your position, be aggressive when you have it. Don't be affraid to raise in position with 72o if the table folds to you. Make smart bets, you don't have to go all in to steal the blinds like I see many people do. Sometimes all it takes is a min raise to take it. You don't want to pot commit yourself while all you were doing was trying to steal the blinds. Also pick your targets, you want to try to steal from the middle sized stacks. A stack too small and they might just go over the top all in on you. I hope this helps. Good Luck!!!

"If luck shuts the door, you've got to go in through the window"

-Doyle Brunson

If you get into a situation where you're folding many many hands in a row, you'll develop a conservative image. Assuming the blinds are high, stealing them from position can be very profitable.

That being said, what are you considering a bad hand? What is your thought process if you see 78 suited on the button? Because that's not really such a bad hand. Don't be afraid to play hands that aren't premium.

Been ther done that...I would rather have crappy hands for the first hour and fold most of them and then it seems like I get better hands the second hour. In your situation, you might have to play a few more hand ranges nad try and hit something especially if you start to get blinded out. And most always play position poker where you can steal blinds.

about the sitting out option...i notice sometimes when you sit out then come back you get a premium hands that get busted....this happens all the time so when you come back into a game and get dealt QQ don't be surprised if the guy to your left has AA or AK and he drops you like you are hot with a A or K on the flop....

haha, well i was mostly kidding about the sitting out thing. that's really lame imo. looking back though, i guess i got stuck in a rut and only wanted to play premium hands, regardless of position. it looks like that was mistake number 1. then when i finally got a decent hand, (not even a great one, something like AJo of A10o) i overplayed it and lost a bunch of chips. most of the time though, i was stuck with rags. for example, i know a lot of hands i got were things like 86, 39, 4 10, Q4 all offsuit. also, every couple hands someone would raise, and maybe even reraise it so it was tough to know when to try and bluff. but i agree with what silverslugger333 said about the suited connectors. i try to play those in position, and sometimes out, but i couldn't even get those the other day. i just hope my luck will improve quickly, and i can get back to winning those darn things!

It's not so much about your cards but simply how you play them, especially after the first break when blinds start to rapidly get larger. Most pots do not even get to a showdown - take that 53o and play it as you might AA. If you're playing relatively conversatively (which it sounds as though you may be) then you can usually force players out of the pot and win blinds, or even post-flop.

Don't let a streak of rags let you go shortstacked. Ever.

Thats just mathematically crazy. You always get good hands at the beginning but magically don't get any after a break. I think you should use your position more often. ( Note: I said more often, not try to win ever pot when on the button)

You need to steal. Observe the two opponents directly on your left (SB and BB). Then when the opportunity presents itself either shove or a large bet. But you need to steal to stay afloat until you get cards. If everyone folds to you.....STEAL.

We've all been there on long MTT's it's like being on an island throwing hand after hand away.

I was going to say just like the above people, you are going to have to steal occasionally if you want to stay tight. It's the 'secret weapon' so use sparingly...but when combined with a tight table image, it can be effective.

By folding ever 9/10 hands if your opponents ar good enough would notice you are quite solid, and then stealing would become easier. However, I dont like steaing because somethimes instead of getting 2-3 BB you lose 6-7 which may be crucial for your stack

During tourny play, remember to play and try to win one hand every pass of the button. Not only will this disguise the fact your playing tight, also a good opportunity to see other players style brought to the table.

--------------Con't from above--------
A player is dealt a pair 1 in 22 hands. The chances of a player hitting a pair on the flop is about 1 in 3 less than 30 percent.

Find a marginal hand and play it if you think you are hitting a rut.. Wait till your heads up possibly against the big blind and make a move..Just dont over commit..

obviously you usually won't get good cards throughout the entire game. just wait until you get a good hand.
don't get tempted to play Q10 or K9 or other medium hands like those. Keep looking for the opportunity to make a move.

ok, so i noticed something else while playing yesterday. once i got to the middle of the tourney, i stopped playing as many hands, regardless of whether i was hitting cards. the reason is people started playing crazy because the blinds started threatening their chipstacks. they would either raise huge preflop then go all in, or just go all in preflop. i won't risk that many chips without a great hand, and even then i don't like calling huge bets preflop. so that's one reason why i can't steal very often. if i try to, a lot of times, i'll get raised all in. once that has calmed down a little though, that is a great time to steal because people just started getting comfortable with their stacks, and don't want to commit that much.

oh, and for those guys who said i should steal, but not to go in with "medium" hands, or to win one hand of every pass of the button, that's ridiculous. you have to play medium hands sometimes, especially when trying to steal. otherwise you're not stealing, you actually have the best hand. and you can't tell yourself to win so many hands either, that will put too much pressure on you and you'll play badly just to get that one hand won. just play solid poker and you'll win enough.

tight players on your left makes for easier steal. most of my problems come from loose players on my right.
DuaneK

GRR! I feel your pain. I tend to have weeks or even months of streaks. I just sit and sit and sit just as long as I can. Sorry to hear you are down on your luck

You have to come in through the window...

At least you'll look tight, you might even be able to steal blinds now and then.

i've find it very easy to go on tilt when you don't catch cards for a while. One exampe is a tournament i was chip leader in and had been playing this tournanment for an hour. all of a sudden i went card dead and started trying to force things to happen. sad thing is i eventually lost the chip lead and didn't even place in the tournament.

I like having tight players on my left for the easier steals... I love having tight players on my left AND loose players on my right - great opportunities to steal from the left and re-steal from the right...

Note that your steals don't have to work every single time in order to be profitable, just a percentage of the time.

In tournaments, it's not a sprint it's a marathon. Patience is definately a virtue here. If you don't want to get into a situation where the blinds are forcing you to push or fold, then i recommend that you're game play has to change. Poker is also playing the player and not always waiting for the nuts to come along.

later in tourneys there will be times when you do run into a situation where you arent getting any premiums

the way to work around this, is to steal the blinds in late position
in these hands, you actually dont want to see the flop, you just need to learn about hand values in late position

you cant keep waiting or you will wait to long and end up blinding out

well u have won some tourneys so u just had a streak of no cards like they all said before me u have to steal some blinds maybe take a shot on a questionable hand u normally wouldnt play to change the pokergods from giving u crap for hole cards once went 152hands on ub 1000$tourney came in 3rd so if u got chips hang on .

Take a note from harrington's book. look at your watch and decide tight or loose based on a predetermined position of the second hand. Other players will never be in a position to decide if you are playing tight or loose.

I have been in the same situation for the past two days and i don't know what to do myself.I nearly knockdown my computer and may have pulled out some of my hair.

steal, yes, every chance you get and don't be afraid to get into a one on one race from time to time

hi your not alone on this one. be carefull of the big stacks as most of the time they will all call with anything. especially if you go all in. i try to keep ahead of the average stacks later in the game. the other problem i find is having good hands but keep missing the flop time after time this is where you will you might have to be a bit aggresive sometimes, anyway good luck

It's called creating your own luck. You have to keep pressure on other players because their all worried about their stacks as well. You can't rely on always catching cards, unless it's a cash game, then you have all day to wait for good starting hands.

if it gets too low you can always think about bluffing to steal some blinds

I've been in a similar situation many times, and I know how frustrating it can be. When I get to the point where it sems like I'm getting rags and totally missing the flop, I try to disregard what the cards are. In other words, I try play as though I flopped the nuts and look for good situations to pick up pots that seem to me relatively uncontested.

For example, UTG+1 raises 3x, it's folded around to my in the CO. I look down at 7 9os. Usually this a clear fold, but after countless orbits of missing and getting pushed out, I sometimes deside to call. If the flop comes low, this us a perfect oppritunity to bluff/steal. I can usually safely assume that an UTG+1 raise is anywhere from A10 +, and with a low flop, they most likely missed. This is a good time for a raise/push. Unless he has an overpair or is just hoping to get lucky with overs, they will most likely fold, leaving you with enough chips to finally catch a good hand and make a proper double up. Also, remember, just because you don't look down at paint, dosn't mean you can't play it, even when you are down to 6-10BB. Look for situations, not cards. At least this is what I do. And if you still don't get ahead, there is always another game to play, don't sweat it.

its better 2 fold in this situation and wait for an alright hand but make a few plays steal a couple of pots if you are not catching anything