CAN'T QUITE GET IN DEEP AT THE TOURNEYS

I'm playing relatively tight. (I loosened up a little lately due to constant beats by ultra loose players) I just always seem to be short stacked near the money. I love playing and I'm having a FRUSTRATINGLY GOOD TIME. Somebody help me please. I'm drowning in the MUCK!

Luv your sig line. I need 4 cards to get any 2 of mine to work.

I'm sure there's a ton of advice out there, but nothing short of playing good hands when you have them, and play them hard. I play fairly tight as well, but poker IS gambling and there is risk unless you know on the river you have the absolute nutz.

The shorter your stack gets, the harder it is to play out a good hand. Collecting chips early is critical to surviving blinds and being card dead for a while. Pick your hands, bets and position to your best advantage and bet. Being tight is OK, but you have to make big moves when you have good hands. It's hard to give exact advice since you don't say if you're talking SnG's or high entrant freerolls or ??

Loosen up a little when you have good hands near mid-tourn. If you bust out, it's getting all your money in with the best hand. If you get beat, at least it's not hours later sitting on the bubble blinding out.

GL and May the Felt be with You.

I used to have the same problem. Surprisingly, the more I read and the more I practiced the closer I got to payout until, one bright day, I was winning more than I was losing.

yup, practice makes perfect...

I don't know what you mean by this but it sounds like frustration getting the best of you. Loosening up a lil is not the answer.

Sometimes it's hard to draw a distinction but try to play strong "power poker" rather than frustrated poker. Calling down to see you're beat by worse starting cards won't do it.

With a tight image and some extra aggresion you should move up.

goldog

I know what you mean....I play tight and can't hit.....I play loose and can't hit....I wish it was easier but that's poker..Hang in there and good luck in the future.....

or how about the time ur playing pretty good poker, have a chance to become chip leader 3 hours into money tourney, played the hand well, and the other guy hits his cards, when you knew you had the guy beat???? That's worse.

Nevadanick is right.I hear a lot of advice about not playing early hands,especially in freerolls.If you have a premium hand during this time you have to go for it.But you definitely have to win chips early to survive later elevated blinds.If you pay attention you can even start stealing blinds by raising! Just look for a round or 2 of checking in a hand and then put out a fairly large bet!Most times everyone will fold!Especially on busted flush or straight draws!
Hang in there,play a few low $ sng's and try a few different things.You will find your groove!
Player7000