Making final tables...

In tournaments you need some luck. Ive never made a final table. But from what I understand you need to come back from the "dead" i.e. hit a few runner runners (atleast once), or hit a miracle flop.

Anyone care to share how many runner runner or miracle flops they hit in a single tourney to make a FT....

You dont need to get suck outs to make the FT (although it would help), but you definately need to:

- not get sucked out on with hands like KK or AA when you get put all in.
- gamble at some point with hands that arent that strong, such as 99.
- not run into big hands like aces.
- or just get plain old lucky and get great hands most of the time.

Annie Duke said "getting to two final tables a year is a good thing". Guess in the bracket she invests in gives that comment some substance.

Whenever I got to a final table, I usually sucked out at least one time and usually during first hour or two. Probably due to the amount of loose players still in it. In many cases my suck outs were a result of being right after the flop, wrong on the turn, but then right again on the river.

When I make the final table it is usually without sucking out but by playing the cards to best advantage. If I get so chip low that a suckout is the only way to get back in, I usually bust out all together.

It's not really so much that you have to suck out on people, it's that you don't get sucked out on by other people.

Comming back from the dead is not required, but it's often the case. With a TAG style you eventually find yourself in trouble. Either short stacked or unlucky you may end up dominated. Usually you'll need to survive 1 or 2 of these to go far in MTTs.

goldog

I dunno if it's so much about coming back from the dead as it is winning a few more than your fair share of coinflips. Quite often it's only one or two hands that decide whether you make the final table or bust too.

You need luck of some sort, whether is outdrawing someone, or getting in with the best hands and having them hold up, or winning the races. Usually, despite what other posters are saying here, making a MTT final table will involve sucking out from behind in at least 1 or 2 cases.

Let's put it this way, something people don't talk about. Even if you have an 80-20 advantage, AA vs. 88 or something, just a higher pocket pair. If you get in this situation 5 times, the odds of you winning them all is 0.8^5 = less than 33%. So if you win 5 of these hands where you are the massive favorite, you have essentially sucked out. You won't call it that, because no one was the single victim, and you were always the favorite, but the odds of you winning them all is 33%. So yo are sucking out by simply winning all the hands in which you have your opponent dominated (at least in big tournaments). Throw in a few coin flips and hands that have you beat? You need to be really really lucky to go far in a big MTT.

there is a reason it's called gambling. Even if you have a 95% chance of winning, you can and if you play enough will lose from time to time. But to say that you have to suck out at least 1 or 2 times to go to a final table is absolutely false.

i made some FT's and i lear some rules:
never all in with AA in blinds
raise if you have a nice hand, but dont go all in until the turn is on the table..

Sure luck is a part of it. You can create a fair bit of your own luck with proper timing and exploitation of your table image. Most times it will require the cards to make good on a semi bluff or 2 that allows you to double or even triple up.

i have gotten lucky or sucked out before which eventually lead to final tables.....but not all happened that way it helps like many have said but you can def. get there without the suckouts.