ONE HAND

I have been looking back at my successes and failures in MTTs and have noticed that there always seems to be that ONE HAND that either gets you set for the rest of the tournament, or, sets you up for disaster for the rest of the tourney, I found no matter how good or bad I play, I can look back in hand history and pick out that ONE HAND I either won or lost that sets the stage for the remainder if the tournament. It is that hand you are absolutely sure you have it won and bet to get the pot up there, and you get caller(s) and get crippled, or, get set to play the rest of the tourney and make the money.
It's amazing that with all the hands played in a tourney, everything you did and worked for hinges on that ONE HAND.
You know the hand I mean, it's the one you slow play when you flop a set, and you build the pot only to be out kicked by someone doing the samething as you, or you outkick them.
I just thought it was very enlightening when I saw how many tournament outcomes are determined, not by your overall play, but by the outcome of that ONE HAND.
Just an observation

u tlkin bout QQ or KK?
Iff ur not all-in then u can get away from ur hand if ur not too much pot commited...

usually this ONE HAND is the one that knocks me out of a tournament...at least thats the hand that i remember the best

+1

Pocket Jacks.

Yeah, there are hands you lose with ,and you're thinking for whole tournament, you should fold it...

I also subscribe to the "pivotal hand" theory. It seems that one or two hands played, or not played, properly will get you deep into the tourney. The problem is recognizing those hands when they come along.

On its face, this makes sense to me and I seem to have experienced the same phenomenon.

The pros look back over their play and can usually clearly identify their make or break hand(s), why not the rest of us?

Well obviously there will be ONE HAND that will probably knock you out of the tournament. That is the nature of tournaments. With blinds increasing and placing pressure on you to get aggressive, it's usually an open push that runs into a big hand or top pair vs 2 pair/set, etc.

So yes, there always is that ONE HAND that knocks you out. Unless you are playing a fixed limit tournament, this will always be the case.

I wouldn't go as far as saying there's always one pivotal hand, but the number tends to be quite small. As an illustration, you can read Gus Hansen's book where he played several days and beat hundreds of players to win the Aussie Millions. I don't remember the exact number of hands he identified as key, but it only averaged in the range of a few per day.

Thanks for the posts. I will have to read Gus Hanson's book. I'm glad to see I am not the only one who sees this. I just thought it was interesting to note.