i want to be a consistent tournament player

the 323

the 323

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how can i step my tournament game up by winning more and more tournaments?
 
Q

Quennie

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i was able to reach that one but thats there are still more stuff to do and there are more steps to be done
 
B

BluffYou123

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Practice, Practice, PRACTICE.

As far as I'm concerned, the best way to improve is by playing and learning from your mistakes.

Experience counts for alot and analysing hands where you made mistakes is a great way of learning not to make the same mistakes again.
 
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tcummo

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there are lots of excellent tourny strategy books out there
dont know if i'm allowed to name any so i wont
if you have a look around i'm sure you will find plenty of info
also lots of websites with tutorials
lots of info on this site too
study and practice WILL bring rewards
also try railing big games watch the pro's
try and see the thinking behind there decisions
good luck m8
 
suit2please

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i was able to reach that one but thats there are still more stuff to do and there are more steps to be done

:/ ?

I would definitely agree with practice, the more tourneys under your belt the better. But you also must improve the different phases of an MTT, early, middle, bubble, and final table. I would start working on your play around the bubble as this is where you either enlarge/build a nice stack or just shrivel up and barely make it into the money. Just making the money in MTTs isn't what you want to do, you want to make the final table as all the big payouts are there.

But there is no one thing you can be told that will make you a consistent MTT player, and if by consistent you just mean consistently barely making the money, then nobody should ever aspire to be that. Expect to go lots of MTTs in a row without a worthwhile cash.
 
natsgrampy

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Practice, practice, practice, and patience. Get yourself a book, "Harrington On Holdem", is one I employed. I don't think many of us realize the importance of patience. Wait for the right hand to play your cards. This will give you a specific table image and when you attempt to "steal" a pot, you will be given respect.
Remember that most good pros only cash in around 10-15% of the MTT they enter. That takes some patience right there to not make money 85% of the time.
To see an example of how far patience will take you, enter into a freeroll, and sit out, don't play one single hand, and see how many players you will outlast, I think you will be surprised at how far you will go.
 
OzExorcist

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Personally, I'd start by accepting that you're not going to win a lot of them, or even cash in a lot of them.

Tournament poker is one of the highest variance forms of poker there is. You can play fantastically well for hours, even days, then lose a flip and be out without any money. You can go dozens of tournaments without cashing and you can go a lot more than that without taking down a major prize - and that's if you're a solid, winning player to begin with. The idea is that your occasional big wins make up for all your pre-bubble knockouts and min-cashes.

If you want consistent earnings, my advice would be to play cash games or maybe single-table SnGs. They're games where (again, assuming you're a winning player) you can make small amounts of money consistently rather than large amounts occasionally.

If you're determined to play multi-table tournaments though then study the game, do your utmost to remain focussed at the table, study your opponents carefully and try to select tournaments that offer you good value - overlays where the number of entries don't cover the prize pool guarantee, for example.
 
Arjonius

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Different people learn and improve in different ways. The key is to find what works for you. And that's not necessarily the same at all times depending on the state of your game. While I wouldn't discount practice, just playing more probably isn't optimal. You may well improve, but probably not as quickly as you would by analyzing your game to find leaks, reading to improve your awareness of types of situations where you might want to consider not always taking your usual actions, etc.

Some other possible areas for improvement are if you're undermining yourself by going on tilt, not focusing fully, playing when you're off your A game, etc.
 
8Michael3

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Since youve decided that MTTs are for you (are you really sure you can handle the variance?), take the advice of Phil Gordon at the beginning of his little green book! He lists five qualities of a winning player. point number 5 is the most important: Constant learning: Think, Read, Discuss, and practice what you learn on the table.

However I dont know many players with a cashing % of more than 20%-thats 1 in 5 cashing. And at least 1 in 10 of those cashes needs you to make a top 3 spot to cover your buyins. You should really just look at improving your game not so much to win all of them-thats unrealistic!

Good Luck

BTW I dig your avatar!!!
 
straytfrush

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I would begin by reading the already suggested books and then play a lot of free rolls and see what sort of styles or tactics you would like to employ. Keep in mind in these early stages you have an incredible number of loose donkeyish players who make strategy difficult other than to just play your cards. In the later levels you can get a lot of good practice in while not risking anything. It can get expensive fast to learn everything when you're the on paying the tournament fee.
 
salim271

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Personally, I'd start by accepting that you're not going to win a lot of them, or even cash in a lot of them.

Tournament poker is one of the highest variance forms of poker there is. You can play fantastically well for hours, even days, then lose a flip and be out without any money. You can go dozens of tournaments without cashing and you can go a lot more than that without taking down a major prize - and that's if you're a solid, winning player to begin with. The idea is that your occasional big wins make up for all your pre-bubble knockouts and min-cashes.

If you want consistent earnings, my advice would be to play cash games or maybe single-table SnGs. They're games where (again, assuming you're a winning player) you can make small amounts of money consistently rather than large amounts occasionally.

If you're determined to play multi-table tournaments though then study the game, do your utmost to remain focussed at the table, study your opponents carefully and try to select tournaments that offer you good value - overlays where the number of entries don't cover the prize pool guarantee, for example.

^This.

Tournament play is easier in many ways in comparison to cash. You can accumulate a lot of chips, play well without even thinking... its very easy to cash in tourneys at microstakes as long as you aren't running bad.

You could defintely get good enough at microstakes to cash consistently... maybe cashing about 35 percent of the time at micro tournies. But getting deep is another story, and much harder to do consistently.
 
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WiZZiM

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Personally, I'd start by accepting that you're not going to win a lot of them, or even cash in a lot of them.

Tournament poker is one of the highest variance forms of poker there is. You can play fantastically well for hours, even days, then lose a flip and be out without any money. You can go dozens of tournaments without cashing and you can go a lot more than that without taking down a major prize - and that's if you're a solid, winning player to begin with. The idea is that your occasional big wins make up for all your pre-bubble knockouts and min-cashes.

If you want consistent earnings, my advice would be to play cash games or maybe single-table SnGs. They're games where (again, assuming you're a winning player) you can make small amounts of money consistently rather than large amounts occasionally.

If you're determined to play multi-table tournaments though then study the game, do your utmost to remain focussed at the table, study your opponents carefully and try to select tournaments that offer you good value - overlays where the number of entries don't cover the prize pool guarantee, for example.
+1

Sng's are a great starting ground for novice players, by far the easiest game to learn and get a feel for, and as mentioned, a simple strategy and a decent shove/fold range can be employed to create consistant profit and the low to mid buy in levels.

And i agree mostly with what's being said, sure your not likely to win all of your games, but you should still be developing the mindset of " I'm going to own this tournament". I think that's really important to keep believing that your good enough and you can, and will win any tournament you play in. I think that's a quality that most top pros share, and why they consistantly win.
 
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The trick to MTT's is volume. Play as many as possible. Reading Harrington's book is a must. No MTT player should be without it. It's not uncommon for a successfull MTT player to multi-table a dozen tournaments at a time.

Volume. Massive volume.
 
wolfie

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want to improve mtt games :p

just play,play.play
play as much as possible and even 2 or 3 at the same time:eek:
not think to much about your oponents moves but trust your gut feeling.
use positional bets as much as possible.
watch who are the regulair limpers that like to see a lot off flops and
who are the occasional betters that wait for real hands.

also make notes about the players you play against in mtt every time you play with them and find out the regulair mtt players.
 
womackcali02

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study group?

I mentioned in another post that we should have a low stakes MTT study group maybe once a week. We all get together in skype and exchange hand histories etc. I think this would be a great way for us to share knowledge and improve our games! Send me a pm if you are interested!
 
doops

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Personally, I'd start by accepting that you're not going to win a lot of them, or even cash in a lot of them.

Tournament poker is one of the highest variance forms of poker there is. You can play fantastically well for hours, even days, then lose a flip and be out without any money. You can go dozens of tournaments without cashing and you can go a lot more than that without taking down a major prize - and that's if you're a solid, winning player to begin with. The idea is that your occasional big wins make up for all your pre-bubble knockouts and min-cashes.

If you want consistent earnings, my advice would be to play cash games or maybe single-table SnGs. They're games where (again, assuming you're a winning player) you can make small amounts of money consistently rather than large amounts occasionally.

If you're determined to play multi-table tournaments though then study the game, do your utmost to remain focussed at the table, study your opponents carefully and try to select tournaments that offer you good value - overlays where the number of entries don't cover the prize pool guarantee, for example.

I agree with this, also.

It's pretty rare to find tourneys where the guarantee exceeds the final player count. Thanks, in part, to late reg, most tourneys fill up. I'd say look for the tourneys that pay out more than 10%. And avoid ones that pay out less than that. That's why I am all for SNGs -- a 9 person SNG pays out 33%. And avoid the superturbos. Yes, I know they are fun, and some folks do very well in them generally, but that first shove starts the whole thing off with a flip at best. Not +EV. In most tournaments, it is completely possible to avoid flips and allins for all but a very few hands.

Then again, what do I know. I get into the money often, but seldom go deep. There is an ongoing debate about whether getting into the money alone is worth it. IMO, you can't make it to the final table if you don't get into the money. And even big chip stacks can disappear as the blinds get big. There is a lot of game to play after the bubble.
 
dexon303

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Persistence, patience, the more game ... teachings of others and their own mistakes ...
 
cardplayer52

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ST SNGs will help alot for your final table game. If you really want to get good at them I'd join a training site and hire a coach. the study group is also a great way to learn(you can also sweat better players and have them sweat you). also "winning touranments one hand at a time vol1 and vol2" are a must read if you want to really get good at these. these are advanced books so look them over and ask questions on anything you don't get. posting HH's on forums and comenting on hands(whether you have a clue or not) is a must as well. you need to know what the winningest players are doing at the stakes you play and do that(and being aware what other are doing). IMO studying the how and whys are so much more important than just playing more of these. and even if you don't know the how or why just coping the moves winning players do can help the BR until you do learn why and how.
 
lektrikguy

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Sometimes the best in the world don't cash. All you can do is play your game the way you know how and learn to adapt to the table. You're gonna get beat-just make sure it's not because you made a giant mistake. "The nights we lose are the nights we learn the most". Review your hand histories and you'll find your leaks. It'll take thousands of hands to improve but hopefully we'll all get there.
 
iamhukleberry

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I have found in playin the few games I have played that that is right you play all good hands and that one time you get say pocket kings some guy will push you with A 10/j and hit his strt or even worse play A 6/10 and hit his strt lol..so i guess what I am getting at is sometimes you gotta play those dead cards and see what flops..you too might hit that miracle strt..lol..
 
Egon Towst

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Much good advice above.

In addition, pick a regular daily tournament that starts at a time convenient for you, and play it as many days as possible. Get used to the structure and rhythym of that particular game and learn as much as possible about the play of the other regulars. This gives you a noticeable edge over casual entrants and improves your chances of a big win.
 
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Not trying to teach you to suck eggs but learn post flop play.

Most important ingredient in MTTS
 
Poker Orifice

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Personally I don't think that 9plyr sng's will help much with MTT play at all (maybe a 1500chip turbo donkament where there's very little room for postflop play). SNG strategy is quite a bit different from typical MTT play (even late stage play... late stage MTT play you're looking to steal blinds or to re-steal & things you're considering are stuff like, "stack sizes of opponent's on your left.. 'are there any re-steal-sized stacks with agg. players?.. if 'yes' then we don't want to be open-stealing unless we're willing to call off to their shove as we'll be priced in to call. Alot of other stuff re: stack sizes.... ie. do we 3-bet steal the open raise (perhaps.... if their stack is of around 25-30+ bb's...(less than that would be a perfect 4bet shove sized stack so we need to consider stuff like this when making a resteal). << just a TON of other stuff like this for late stage MTT play which in my opinion makes it FAR different from typical SNG play (unless just about everyone is shortstacked.... like in a tourney like MidnightMadness.. where most stacks are <10bb on final table).

I'd suggest... read, read, read... play, play, play... read some more. watch vids., discuss hands with others.... watch some of the bigger buyin tourneys play out (& target a couple of the winning regs. & watch their play as they're multi-tabling MTTs at all stages of the game... <<< lots to be learned from this). Training sites (vids.) are a great tool for learning as well.
Put it altogether... put in a TON of time... & then "how to become a more consistent tourney winner" answer: 'pray', 'cross fingers'.. 'run good', etc. Put in a TON of volume!!
MTT play can really suck at times. You can play for many hours, get your stack in REALLY GOOD.. and poof... out to a total donkout.. .ending up with zero or a min. cash. (<<< this is COMMON!!!)
 
Leo 50

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MTT are difficult to cash in, especially the really large ones.

If your BR is less than 100 buy-ins then I would suggest playing the single table SnG's to raise a BR.
Also you will also get a lot of table practice (try to stay out of the turbos, they can be a donkfest
and you can develop some bad habits)
Once you feel comfortable at the table and have raised your BR then you can move up to the 3-5 (18-45 players) table SnG's

Play a larger MTT (10-30 tables 900-2700 players) when you have time but unlike others here, I'd suggest 1 at a time till you feel really comfortable.

Patience and TAG play is always the key.

:cool:
 
Poker Orifice

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Hire a good psychiatrist. After 12mos. or so, playing MTTs you will likely need one (the downswing continues....)
 
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