Noobish problem about micro SnGs.

Well lets say you play a 1$ 90 player SnG. Lets say that you build up your stack by making good plays, but you fall when stacks and blinds go bigger. That happens to me about 4/5ths of the time. I dont know whats te problem. Like when i put my money in as 4 to 1 favorite then I usually win most of the time, but eventually i lose. And the lose is usually before bubble. I cant stand, when people play bad. Like today it happend(just one hand in thousands). i get KdQd raise before me, i call. Flop XdKhXd. So it gives me second best flushdraw and top pair. My opponent bets, i raise half of his stack and he calls. Turn is blank, he bets big again, i call. Now river is a diamond, i have made my flush. He goes all in, I call and he shows Ad9d. Thats usual. Can i avoid these kind of moments? Similar is when big stack puts himself all in with TT and i call with AA, then usually its big stack that wins. I usually win flips in early stages, but lose them in late stages. Help a noob here pls. Ye i know peaple say that its 1$ tourney, but i still hate it.

I try to control the size of the pot until I have a very strong hand. I also try to avoid all in confrontations with players who can eliminate me unless I have a very strong hand. Losing with AA vs 1010 is unlucky and should work itself out over time. But, 1 out of 5 times the under pair will hit its set and beat you. I definitely want to avoid coin flips with bigger stacks unless I am getting short stacked (10BB or less) From your post you may be gambling too much with coin flips during the "middle" of the tournament after you have built your stack early. You may want to continue to be aggressive but cut done on the number of calls you make.

and you are going to run into that type of player 95% of the time in a $1 tourney.....the problem is they do not value the $1 therefore it might as well be a freeroll.........I like to play in a little higher entry fee tourneys.....after about ten bucks and up (from what I've noticed) you can see a significant drop in the number of loose loose players......also avoid those rebuys if you dont want that to happen as well.........it only takes one suckout to getcha when you have less chips......

it is inevitable to run into those kinds of players at the level you are playing yet but if its a long term pattern that you keep busting as the blinds go up it could be a leak. check your stats to see whether you are stealing blinds more frequently at higher blind levels as it gets more and more important to pad your stack

Above.

I like to play super tight in those low buy in tournies..for the first hour I play only premium hands which gives me a tight image and more opportunities to steal blinds in the later stages..Peace and GL

lol its funny i run into the same thing in that 90 man sitn go on full tilt put ive made the final table and get beat right away when my ak loses to weaker ace or a pair of 4s right before i can get the 22.50. ihv a nice rating on fulltilt according to opr but i always miss out on winning the tourny ive played that same tournament the double stack many times and never won it yet which is ajoke but ive had 3rd 4th 5 th 6th finishes which is close but no cigar. i think the problem is when the blinds increase like that the luck factor increases b/c ur usu alln and ur tourny life depends on a single hand, if u take a bad beat or lose a big race ur done. ihate it too gl bro

Thank you all for your replies. You have all been really helpful.
I have won T6 200€ guarantee several times, with a really noob strategy that works with bad players(like myself). First hour, i didnt bluff at all, played only premium hands and if I made something i always showed, that that play wasnt a bluff. So within first hour if i catched cards then i got my chipstack up. And now, when the rebuy period is over, i told in chat "enough fun, i dont show anymore" and started to bluff very often and it worked. In HU i had 8-1 CL. Ofc its very bad strategy, just an example.

In the hand where u hand second nut draw, I dont think either of u were getting away considering the stack investments and it is just an unfortunate situation for u.
I only quickly scanned the comments here, but the one I liked the most is about controling the size of the pots, especially when u dont have the nuts or at least the nut draw.
Sounds like your game is going well, just experiment with changes to your game where u feel things begin to go wrong, you'll figure it out.
some good advice in your comments
mix it up and gl
Tc

Here is somehting to try that will help your game. You are complaining about your loss with aa versus 10's. To help skyrocket your game and make you a better player with all your "bad beats" remember the exact situation stack size position everything. Find a goo hand simulator that you can input all this data from your beat that can run simulations over and over thousands of times. Run the simulation and it will show you if given that same exact situation played over thousands of times how many times you would have won and loss. If it shows that in that situation you win the majority of the time then rest easy knowing that you made the right decision in the long run. If the simulation shows that you would in the long run over thousands of times come up losing in the long run hey you just learned what not to do if that situation ever came up. It also tells you that you have a huge leak in your game that you shore up. If you continue to think about short term losses then you will never be able to push past and be a great poker player. That is how you can survive the bad beats. Otherwise if you keep thinking like you are you are going to start playing when you have the worst of it based on your feeling and not on the math of the game. You are complaing too much about them playing bad. If you are correct and you are making the correct decision in the tournament then be happy with that instead of stooping down and paying like these bad players whether its a 1 dollar tourney or 1000 dollar tourney cards are cards and probabilities do not change just because you are in a 1 dollar tournament we all get the same cards pros nubes or jack asses just having fun.

Very nice reply Philthy, I think you coved about everything.


Are you changing your game up at this point? I am wondering if you're not getting too agressive and taking risks you don't need to. At this point of the game pateince and timing is everything. As mentioned in another post here, controling the pot size is very important too as is pushing people off of draws. Stop flipping coins for stacks or at least slow it down as much as possible and you'll see that 1st place win more often. Getting good reads on the villians will tell you when you got 'em and when to get away while you still have ammo.

A good practice game to toughen up your skill is bounty stt/mtt's. Play is usualy much better (usualy) and people tend to play tighter.

This is great advice for me as I think I've been really stuck with just this issue... my gut vs. the reality of the math. (maybe that's a newbie universal. )

GREAT thread everyone! Cilderr, I'm really glad you asked the question!
Lisa

Well sorry I missed your intro Lisa - welcome to CC, Philly girlfriend!! Haven't seen you play like a newbie, but it's been a long time!! BTW, I don't see you logged into RB much. I usually go in there to take the daily quiz, beat up on quizzy, and get a password or two. I got a new set of chips from Full Tilt. Anytime you want to get a friendly game going, drop me a line.

And yes, great thread. Philthy is so on the money at every point. Just this one paragraph taught me a lot, but still uncertain as to play the Kx once I get it (all-ins?):

For example: When blinds are low and you have a big stack, you don't have to play many hands. You can wait and wait and wait for a big hand and not worry too much about getting eaten by blinds. Also, hands like A/small kicker or K/small kicker have very little value, but small PP and suited connectors in multi-way pots have a lot of value. But when blinds are big compared to your stack, there are changes. You can no longer wait for big hands because blinds will eat you up. Hands like A/x and K/x go up in value while small PP and suited connectors go down in value. So, its all about adjusting and knowing when to adjust.

The only thing I might add is that when you're in a 90 person SNG , after you eliminate (and luck ALWAYS plays some part in this) the overly loose aggressive and loose passive (roughly half the field), you're dealing with better players. If you've gotten as far as the bubble, you're doing great - although no one is expected be happy with that result. I know it's hard, but try not to get tilted when you get a nasty donk beat. Sit out a hand or 3. And learn from the wealth of knowledge here.