Questions about improving my game

So, I cant really say im a newbie, but I cant say Im good either. I have a couple of questions about freeroll tournaments. I play them regulary, most of them at ActionPoker ( Because there is one every hour ), but I dont get to the money enough times. I read all about holdem on the internet about SnG, Slow tourneys, Freeroll strategies, but nothing seems to work for me. If I follow my own strategy, which I acquired when I first started playing, which also I believe is terrible, I almost every time get to the top 10 in the beginning of the tournament, but it does not help me in a long term. I know how to calculate odds (percentages), outs and so on I always be careful about who I bet against, whether he would call or re-raise, what possible hand could he have to be that certain when Im being raised and so on. I notice that kind of stuff and im right most of the time but something is wrong. Every guide tells that I should be playing tight at the begining and play only premium hands, when I do this I get nowhere. I get premium hands once per 20 hands and when I call the bets I miss the flop. According to my own strategy I play variety of hands early, because the blinds are insignificant and if I hit my hand I make sure to get the most of it (Check with the nuts, Considering a Small raise to make my opponent think that Im trying to steal, making him think that I bluff, done by huge raise pre-flop and when I hit i go all in, that seems to work ) but as I said im going nowhere with this. The thing is Im going further with my own strategy which is bad, and when I use someone elses strategy, which has proven to be good, my play becomes even worse. Im playing regular speed or turbos and Ive only won money twice, and have played like 50-60 tourneys. So any tips would be appreciated. I know how to steal, bluff ( Not all the time, but when I sense that my opponent has a weak hand and I represent top pair, flush, straight and so on. And also I find late game very frustrating, even when Im the chip leader I dont feel like wasting 2k ( out of 60k for example ) for a hand that might not hit the flop, so I only play premium hands and tighten my game as much as possible and eventually Im getting understacked. Its just like a reflex to fold at big raises,blinds. Tips on that would be appreciated too.

You're probably picking all the wrong times to make moves etc.

Best thing I can advise is post some hands you have played from early/middle/late stages of tournaments as it's really hard to say where you're going wrong without seeing how you're playing overall.

50-60 tourney is nearly none. ITM for a noob 2 times in 60 freerolls is not as bad as you think.

Play poker first for the fun of the game. The challenges are fun, the competition is fun, and in live games, the camaraderie should be considered fun, even if you hate that unnamed player 2 seats to your right. If you are not having fun playing poker, you will make more money working at a job you don't like.

After you have thousands (plural) of tourneys under your belt, you can then get a much more realistic evaluation of your game.

As for your strategies vs other peeps strategies; There is no perfect strategy. As most of us have read many books, even more articles, and played hundreds of thousands of hands, millions in many many cases, we have all incorporated all those learning experiences into a rough blob of what we would call our own game.

Bottom line is ....be patient grasshopper.

Oh yeah, Welcome to Cardschat.

TheNoobie said:

According to my own strategy I play variety of hands early, because the blinds are insignificant and if I hit my hand I make sure to get the most of it (Check with the nuts, Considering a Small raise to make my opponent think that Im trying to steal, making him think that I bluff, done by huge raise pre-flop and when I hit i go all in, that seems to work ) but as I said im going nowhere with this.

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You're effectively a beginner even though you've been playing for a while, so the first thing you should learn to do is play a solid TAG game. At the open freeroll level, it's too early to concern yourself with out-playing your opponents. The main goal at this stage is simply to make fewer poor and questionable decisions than they do.

and don't be scared in late play when the blinds are high, especially when you have a big stack.
you have to open your range, use more aggression and bully the little guys, especially near bubble time (as many people tighten and try and limp into the money)
you should be playing for a win and not a min cash
CC taught me its better to bubble many games and play right,
cuz when you do, you make a stack big enough to get you to the final table, and hopefully the win
(one top 3 placing is worth more than many many small cashes)

So, I tightened my game up and play only premium hands ( Q J lowest ) and Im getting significantly better results so far. Stopped going all-in preflop and that helped me survive early game I guess. Im not even close to top 20, but atleast I last longer and I guess mid to late game if I can double up with a good hand it helps a lot. I just got one question - if you play only premium hands, fold anything else, ( with starting chips 1000 I go down to atleast 920 or 900 before I hit a premium hand ) and if I raise and didnt hit the flop, what happens then? I mean if I raise 3bb and dont hit the flop it causes much pain to my stack. How do you deal with that? And if I dont raise preflop and then hit I usually check or bet small and they fold. It does not happen every time, but happens often enough. Any advices on that? Thanks for the tips to everyone so far, helped a lot.

Do not use how long you last as an indicator of how well you played. It's not much of a gauge unless you have a pretty large sample size, and even then, since there's considerable variance, that could be the cause.

What's important is to make good decisions - better than your opponents - regardless of the results of specific hands. If you do that, you'll be on your way to becoming a winning player.

When you don't raise pre- and get to see the pot, the opponents don't have much, or else someone would have raised. So, when you connect with the flop enough to bet, why are you surprised that they fold a lot? They started with not much and they missed the flop. It happens pretty often; an unpaired hand will fail to flop a pair about about 2/3 of the time. And even when it does pair, it's often only a low or mid-pair.

Tightening up and only playing premium hands eventually shows. If you want those final tables you need to take some risks.