I have a serious deficiency in my game

Just recently, I noticed that time and time again I am playing tight for the first hour or so in tournies, and am building up a nice chipstack, but for some reason, I then seem to get impatient and want a piece of the action, so I'll get involved in pots that really I have no business being in.

It starts off as a steady ebb away of the chips. An odd call here, and odd call there, but each time its eating away at my chips. Then when I do get a playable hand, maybe pocket pair, then I go hell for leather with it, and end up getting screwed leaving me then short stacked and in a far worse position than I was at the start.

Anyone got any advice other than the blatantly obvious one of not getting involved in hands I neednt get involved in.

How do you keep boredom away when all you are doing is hitting the fold button repetitively for maybe an hour, not playing any hands..

I need to get this out of my game and quick. I am getting deeper and deeper into games, but this weakness is crucifying me at critical points..

This is probably still in the blatantly obvious category but play another table maybe? I can understand getting bored and losing focus in a long tournament, it happens to me if that's all I'm doing. Read at Cardschat while playing .

That's what I do, go through the forum, watch you tube, start a SNG. Anything to keep myself occupied, otherwise I can fall into that trap too.

Gotta go AK on the button, woohoo.

Porn!

Playing distracted and with 1 hand ought to keep you from playing too loose.

dufferdevon said:

That's what I do, go through the forum, watch you tube, start a SNG. Anything to keep myself occupied, otherwise I can fall into that trap too.

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DO you need two screens to do that? Maybe two pcs? I've tried it with one screen, but not so good results.
TK

lol I think the deficiency in my game is me playing. But seriously surf the forum in your meantime or have a favorite program recorded you could put on. I record my soaps and watch those while playing.

Think of poker as a boring 58 minutes with 2 minutes of excitement per hour. Thats live poker. Even an online tournament may only yield 3-4 good hands to play during that hour. The rest of the time can be used to reconnect the mind to the soul. Poker is not a game where you want to be actively participating in most of the hands. Observe, but not play.

I play freecell in between hands... anything to keep me from feeding the donkeys. I know aggression is a great strategy, but in my experience , especially in the first hour or so there are donks and calling stations eeeevvveerrryyywhere. Maybe it's cause they're free or low buy in tourneys, even if it's 20 bucks or so to enter I cosider it low. I don't know, I've never played a high stakes buy in tourney...well at least not yet, but I would think there weren't as many fools at the tables, If anyone has any high stakes experience I'd like to hear about it. Few hundered -thousand or so.

gns2003 said:

Think of poker as a boring 58 minutes with 2 minutes of excitement per hour. Thats live poker. Even an online tournament may only yield 3-4 good hands to play during that hour. The rest of the time can be used to reconnect the mind to the soul. Poker is not a game where you want to be actively participating in most of the hands. Observe, but not play.

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I agree. Compared to live play, online is so much faster that it's easy for us to get bored/antsy/irritated - this happens to me all the time. And even though you can pick up some betting patterns online, there's only so much you can watch without starting to lose patience if you're card dead.

I consider myself to be quite patient but if I do get impatient, then I do something fairly simple/mundane to try to make myself refocus on the game (keeping in mind that I need to continue to be patient in order to be successful). I also try to take notes on betting patterns to try to refocus - it's not very thrilling but when you're sitting out of a hand and get to see a showdown, it's a great opportunity to see how good your reads are. Admittedly though, I don't do this as often I should be doing!

I think you just need to try out different methods and see what works. I definitely agree with others about reading through posts on this site.

Playing distracted and with 1 hand

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LOL! I have a feeling this won't improve anyone's game, but I suppose it could pass the time. Oh man, just when you think this place doesn't have anything more to offer...

dave

This is the difference between the pro and the amateur. That is discipline. Discipline to keep your focus on the game. To keep the end in sight. That is to accumulate all the chips and to win.
Try doing different things. Play only premium hands for 15 minutes. JJ+, AK, or AQs. Just force that on yourself. So you wont play recklessly. Sit out on hands for 5 minutes. Go to the kitchen and get a drink. Or do some excercise for 5 minutes.
If my stack is big enough Ill just sit out for 10 minutes and do some reading if I get bored. But I rarely get bored. But when I do come back I force myself to watch every move on the table.
First we learn how to play a short stack. Then Big Stack. But playing that medium stack (20BB) in the middle of the tournament is very tough. Not enough is written about this.

When I came seconed in the 1$ donkasaurous I went through likme a hour of just folding, I played like 4 hands with no action on any. To get through this I read the forums, then when I got bored of that I got a book I was reading at the time and read a couple chapters of that. Sometimes if im not in the mood to read ill open a high stakes table and watch people loose $1000s which always makes me smile. If i get really bored I look to see which pros are online and watch them. Eventually youll find a boredom busting set of things youll like to do and your overall game will improve dramatically.

I also become distracted in some tournaments.. usualy I take a break 10minutes before after the oficial break (play in Full Tilt, don't know how is others).. I can say that works.. Is better lose some oportunities of grow tham lose all...

break.com is a great site for keeping you distracted while playing in tournys. It'll help keep the boredom down but watch out you don't lose focus on your game!

As everyone else has said....patience. Find something to keep yourself busy.

Leo

I would just look some shit up online, watch some vidoes on googole or you tube. If u have to cash play another SnG or cash table. Try listening to some music that works for me. And if u do get into a pot with not such a great hand try to make sure ur in late position theres only like 1 caller so u can steal it bc they should see u have been playing tight for a hour and show u respect for a good hand

Steps to improve your game:

1. Figure out what you are doing wrong.

2. Stop doing it.

I'm really good at step 1, and have problems with step 2.

What I do is concentrate on the other players, learn their game and try to guess who is going to fold\bet\raise\go all in - The more the game continues (and if I stay one the same table) the more I guesstimate better the other player and then - I play good hands a lot better as I (think to) have leaned the other player's weak spots

fcumred said:

Just recently, I noticed that time and time again I am playing tight for the first hour or so in tournies, and am building up a nice chipstack, but for some reason, I then seem to get impatient and want a piece of the action, so I'll get involved in pots that really I have no business being in.

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I think you pretty much answered your own question here.

Don't do that.

WVHillbilly said:

Porn!

Playing distracted and with 1 hand ought to keep you from playing too loose.

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BwaaaHaHaaaaaaaaaa......

So that's why my buddy is so good at one handed typing....


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