Freeroll or Dice Throw

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Curtis Ellis

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I will start by saying I am fairly new to online poker and also extremely short on cash. That being said I play as many freeroll tournaments as I can everyday. Recently I have been averaging somewhere between 20-25 freerolls a day. In addition I also play in a live poker league that offers a couple of freeroll games a week. I usually do fairly well in the live games. I actually won a live freeroll that qualified me for an online tournament of 350 people which I also won 3 weeks ago for a free buy in to an Atlantic City tournament and an all inclusive trip to Vegas for another tournament. I consider myself an above average player although I am just beginning to utilize all of the many tools online poker has such as HUD's and tracking software. In doing so I have found many holes in my game such as overaggressive tendencies and an unwillingness to lay down some hands I should never have entered a pot with. Before the changes I was finishing top 20% on average with many cashes and unfortunately a bubble or two along the way. Since tightening and tidying my game in the past week or two thanks to Poker Indicator and Hold'Em Manager 2 I have found myself out much earlier. I'm talking about finishing outside of the top half on a regular basis. It seems I always get rivered too. I would be willing to confidently say that that 5th card is the one that puts me on ice 75% of the time and that could be low. I just don't get it. I flop a 2 pair, they river a straight. I flop a straight, they river a flush. I flop a flush, they river a boat. It never fails. I am actually afraid to get my chips in good at this point. This isn't good hand vs good hand either. I can pre flop raise in position with AKs and get called by 84o out of position. I'll flop top two and push and get called and runner runnered every time. Does this stuff happen regularly to anyone else or do I just need to find something else to do and quit wasting my time trying to get better?
 
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TheImperator

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That is the great thing about those programs... you can look at all the instances you have played a certain hand and see if you truly are having issues with that hand. (Like your AK example.)

It doesn't sound to me like you have enough hands played online to really know...we all get rivered and you may still have a very small sample size to where the suckouts feel overly prevalent...and especially if you are only playing freerolls, you are going to have tons of people that don't really care and will play with any two cards.
 
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Dan Lucas

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When I started playing on-line 11 years ago, I also ran really well for about a month. I also read all the books and studied for ways to improve my game. But I made the same mistake as many players. Poker players are like drivers. Everyone seems to think they are above average. If you want to play productively, you have to avoid becoming results oriented. Everyone gets rivered, and everyone catches a river. Focus on your decisions. Professional poker players talk about only making the money in less than 20% of the tournaments they play, and most of these are min cashes. It is a grind. You talk about being short of cash. Then bankroll management is critical. Keep playing you freerolls, keep learning and try not to develop leaks by overextending your cash which leads to bad decision making to try and recover losses.
 
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