Find the leaks

So am ok at microstakes - getting up to chip leader fast enough and doing all the little tricks to steal etc.

But at some point I lose most of my stack.

Maybe it's

- fatigue
- (beer!)
- mutiltabling
- getting cocky / under estimating opponents (esp ones who look loose)
- 'other'

Any ideas about spotting your leaks, and plugging em?

Have you reviewed your hand histories? Can you determine anything about your game from these?

Remain Focused ...........

beer >> lol >> can only improve things.

Don't let the momentum change.
Focus on the game and continue to play the same aggressive style that got you to this point.
Don't let up.
Focus
Take it to the next level.

Good luck

Switch up your play? I'm guessing to get all those chips at the start you're playing more of a LAG style, but after you knock out all the donks and you're left with the decent/good players, they will catch on.

They will start floating your c-bets and stuff like that, and that will make you think that they have it. Once people peg you as stealing/bluffing a lot you need to tighten up for a while until you get a new table or they start respecting your raises again.

Thanks for the replies. Good stuff.

@velutha
RE: hand histories

I'm beginning to review them. But doing so for a few hours' play is quite a task. Is the an aggregator app that helps automate this into shiny charts?

Am inputting hourly stats into a spreadsheet to analyse patterns, but those 'oops' moments are drowned in the data.

@ wes747
Re: being clocked

Yup. I guess that's what's happening. Esp in cash games, there's so much churn at the table, someone enters (having watched you play a while?) and busts you out.

I try tightening up - but my stats say I play 50-55% of hands tho. I don't want to be seen as too tight, for obvious reasons.

I bust out trying to come over the top and getting seen with SFA (Sweet F.... All). So you're suggesting backing off until nuts arrive in position?

... forgot to mention, am using a Mac.

I googled and got a few results, but haven;t tested the apps yet. Recommendations - for stat tracking and HUD?

theres such a thing as changing gears. when you come out like a maniac people take notice. if your in every pot raising people percieve you as a bully. when playing this style you got to be on the look out for traps. some things that should jump out at you are. if a tight player limps UTG when you've been 3betting every pot. you can rest assured he got a big pocket pair. another thing if your preflop raise gets called and someone donks into you you raise and he shoves fold its often a set. as said in someone elses post people will start to float you. if they do give up on the hand. dont fire a second barrel. try to notice if people have started to adjust to your playing if so change gears. however if they have changed and you happen to have a big hand chi ching play it to the fullest as your likely to get paid off big. for the most part just downshift and wait for a big hand.

holdem manager has a 15 day trial try it out then just buy it.

this is your leak

I am a pretty tight player and possibly don't play 50-55% of my hands.
Folding hands like K7, J8, 10 7, A2 off for example UTG.
In middle position I would fold J 10, A3, Q4 as examples.
In late position I play a lot more hands, especially from the BB.
89s, 9 10s, Q9s, Ax, Kx, J 10, as examples.
As such I'm loosing out on a lot of flops that would be in my favor.
What should I do to increase my chip profits in MTT.
I do OK, but am usually way behind in chip totals.

Another point, because I am a tight player, opponents at the table
take notice and often fold when I raise pre-flop voiding any chance
of me gaining in chip lead. Agrrrrr

thanks in advance for your help and advice.

Can you elaborate?

Being a n00b, I thought this WAS tight!

If you play 50% of your hands, you will lose. This is absolutely ridiculous. If I see someone playing 50% of their hands I will follow them around from table to table all day until they bust or log off. I really don't see a reason for ever playing more than 25% of your hands in Full Ring. If you are playing 6-handed thats a different story, but you still should never play 50% of your hands. ICK!

Don't play any 2 suited cards. If your two suited cards cannot flop a straight flush, then you shouldn't be playing them. This isn't just what I think...this is pretty much set in stone.

Also, don't play face+rag. Hands like K4 or Q7 are only going to get you in trouble.

Theres more but start with that.

yes, i'm catching on...for now....late in turnys, dont play more than min bet w/ stuff like a q, or 9 9, or 8 8, or k q suited, cards like that, like you might have played early....if its cheap, play for the flop, then u must be able to see whether its your hand, or some1 elses. if you can look at the flop, and see if its your hand or not, you've got a good chance to cash!

well, you do seem to be really noob (nothing wrong with that, we all start somewhere) so i would suggest reading some books to get you up to speed on the very basics of the game. probably would recommend hellmuth's play poker like the pros as a good book for beginner players. of course super system by doyle brunson is good as well.

if you aren't in a position to get those, i suggest finding some sort of starting hands chart online to use as a guide. it basically tells you which hands to play and how to play them from each position. try it out for a while to get a feel of how you should play before trying anything fancy.

Dont be so hard on yourself, if you strive to improve your game it will improve .Just be vigilant with reviewing where it all went wrong. The more you play the more you will find yourself in the same situations and something will click and you will know the right play. Just stay tight and Aggresive, and be aware of other players proclivities and you should finish ups GL

I would consider 15-19% over the whole tourney as tight (looking at MTTS and SNGs).

Even if I play laggy (very tight opponents) I rarely reach 30%.

50% is crazy - why not go for 100% ?

To get an idea about starting hand selection read this: Hold 'em starting hand charts

FYI - I live in a foreign country and there''s no HE community here, so I'm 'drawing blind' on figuring stuff out.

Finding cardschat has been a real boon.

Thanks for the solid advice, guys. I'll put it into practice this weekend.

I looked at this chart. It's only recommending 3 hands for early position (EP).
JJ, AQ suited, and AK. I suppose that would include AA, QQ, and KK; however they are not named, but I would not fold these other hands in EP.
Isn't that playing rather too tight?
AJ is easily dominated so I understand playing that hand in EP may be foolish
cause you don't know what other players at table have yet.

So in middle position the lowest you go with pocket pairs is 88?

I also noticed that pocket Pairs 22, 33, and 44 are omitted in late position. Is there a reason for this? Not even limping with these? Even though I'm against limping, you could catch trips on the flop. I wouldn't go farther than the flop with these low pocket pairs.

AA, KK, QQ are raising hand in every position.

Small PP (22-77) are only good if they catch a set - as you said.
The odds of them catching are about 10%.
Keep in mind that there'll usually be a raiser in later position you will have to call to see the flop.
Then you will have two problems - OOP and unlikely hitting.
I do sometimes play them too, but I'm always ready to lay them down to a big raise.

This hards chart is for the beginner - the advanced player is ready to play anything in any position if the situation is right.

The starting chart is a good place to start. If you play it as it says you will make money at the lower levels. It is mainly to stop you getting in tricky situations. It takes a long time to start understanding the game and concepts and when you do you can start adding hands to it and loosing up, though really playing A10 and AJ in early position will always be iffy.

Cardschat has a lot of good stuff, concepts such as pot odds, implied odds, draw odds. You need to learn it all fully before you can start moving away form hand charts. For example playing low pocket pairs without enough money in the pot (or your oponents stack) to make it worthwhile taking the (1 in 8) chance of hitting a set means you will lose money in the long run. Read up on this stuff as a good start.

Now for the specific problem. Playing 50% hands is stupid at any time in any game IMO, but what is likely happening is you've been running over your table(s), your opponents have caught on and are waiting for a big hand to snap you off. You can't 3 bet everytime and people will fold. Sometimes they will have it and you need to realise when they do. Just slow down.

Oh and lol.

Edit: can't quote a quote which is a little annoying

Sweet beer, a poker players worst enemy. Maybe this reading your play. Try mixing it up a little.