Problem with focus, any suggestions?

I was playing a tourney tonight, and the same problem occurred as usual. I was up to 8k chips within 45 minutes, putting me second out of 180. I was playing well, playing good hands hard in position, not bluffing, folding when I should etc. So about an hour later I'm getting frustrated, no decent hands for ages, and I started playing really marginal hands, unsuited connectors etc. I started doing ridiculous bluffs oop, calling raises with junk. I just couldn't concentrate at all.

I donked off half my stack bluffing to a medium stack with AJ on a K high board, he called to the river with TT. I completely tilted and raised 4x a few hands later with AT and called a shove(KK). So I got knocked out around 80th, so frustrating when I had such a huge stack early on. I play both cash and tournaments, I like tournaments, but this seems to be consistently happening, playing great early then donking off my stack due to boredom/idleness.

Any suggestions? Quit tournaments completely? Stick to cash?

Thanks for any input.

I am always tempted to play cards I wouldn't normally play after surging into an early chip lead too. Were you playing on this table only or did you have others open too? I find that playing a DON or a small stakes SNG simultaneously helps me to keep my discipline in these situations. If I have another table to watch I still fold the hands that are quite tempting but are usually better off in the muck...

Take FOCUSYN

Dood you stole my post. I have been having the same exact problem. I just turn into a donk after awhile.

Sometimes I will take an extra break if I am ahead that helps. Often I will open a ring game and in the tourney just play the good starting hands sitting out the ring game for a few hands while I focus on tourney. Oh and play a cheap limit ring game so if you miss a hand no biggie.

Good news is if your like me; and I went through this and did it too, is that you will eventually learn not to do it from the losses by it you have added up over the years. I struggle with attention playing online sometimes too and the only real combat against this is to practice solid play and you will reduce losses due to loss of focus on the objective of 1st...bluffing is a very rare happening in poker that takes a very special board.

I would say if you feel like your getting bored just remember what you normally do and go against that instinct, or sitout a few hands too refocus. I have a very hard time focusing sometimes my add makes it a pain in the butt to focus. I'm sure the more you play the more you will recognize and be able to control the situation.

I think ur gonna need to play for some more meaningful stakes to play for, or perhaps set goals like u want to place in X spot or get X payout in a particular tourn to make u concentrate and play better.

what I do sometimes to avoid what ur describing is find a distraction either a movie or play more tables.

Sure, a distraction isn’t gonna make me play my best but when im distracted and doing something else it gets rid of that feeling to play those mediocre hands and hard drawing hands or whatever that get a lot of ppl in trouble.

When im watching a movie on the side im not gonna be interested in playing those mediocre hands and it helps me avoid that adventurous mood that gets a lot of ppl in trouble.

When Im watching the movie- im more interested in my chip stack to blinds ratio, than anything else and less on whats dealt to me and in what position.

If I get tooo distracted like playing the wrong game in HORSE for example, its time to turn off the distraction lololol.

Sometimes I also put a note near the screen saying simply “U know better” that helps sometimes too- lolololol.

If u want good reminders to play well -u could also break out a good tourn book while playing if u got 1 or go to ur favorite tourn strategy web page or watch a academy video in the full tilt academy or wherever u can go to reinforce good poker play to avoid that “adventurous” feeling.

U could also just call up some1 or get a family mbr and letem remind u to play ur best game and not do silly things if u got a tendency to getting “adventurous”. lol

Anyway, distractions and reminders help me.

I don’t know about sitting out because u might miss out on a good opportunity. Sooo I don’t know, but it works for some ppl after a bad beat or something so its good to take under consideration.

GL

I see this all the time - players getting a big stack quickly and then overplaying hands.

I suspect that early leaders in a tourney often have a sense of having their hands on the money already and maybe think that because they have 2x or 3x the average stack they are indestructable. All that having a big stack means is that you have more options and can take a beat and still be in a comfortable position.

Here's my advice (other than just playing properly) based on what I have found myself doing: when you have been up the top of the leader board and take a beat that sends you down to 10th out of 100, rather than feeling bad about what you have lost or about 'slipping down' the leader board think about how you would feel if you had just doubled up to that position from 40th. Your situation is the same in numbers of chips going into the next hand. In fact, that beat has just demonstrated the value of a big stack - a loss doesn't end our tournament.

I did the same thing. Play great... then horrible.

I heard something on a video recently and it REALLY hit home with me. It was the first thing he said and it goes something like this...

"Im only gonna say this once... Poker is played with real money, so dont F#&K around."


may not have the same meaning to you, but made a world of difference to me.


GL

I am naturally a very impatient person but I learned to be patient as far as poker goes. The way I keep from blowing my stack is to just sit out for a while take a short walk outside and smoke a cigarette to get back into the midset I was when I first started the tournament. Then I can play good poker again rather than getting pissed at crap cards and raising with nothing. The best thing is to just walk away for a little while.

that happens to me to, in the begining i get good cards, and win some chips, and after that barely can see a good card...

Ok guys,

So what I've got so far:

a.) Watch a movie
b.) Focusyn: I'll think about that one
c.) Take a break
d.) Play a game on the side
e.) Don't bluff
f.) Think about the money
g.) Play more meaningful stakes(prob. the main reason but don't wanna break BRM)
h.) Think about where I am in relation to where I might be had I not 2x/3x'd up
i.) Take up smoking.

Nice suggestions guys, I'll put this list next to my PC

cheers for the input

One hand at a time

Have a plan for each hand. Play it one hand at a time. If I develop a big stack early I'll send a couple text to some poker buddies letting them know I plan on going deep into this tournament. This way it gives me a reason outside myself to play better. I do the same when I make final tables. When I'm online by myself it's all about me me me. More likely to tilt with the mememe attitude. If I have people to show how cool, calm, and disciplined I am I'm more likely to be cool, calm, and disciplined.

Poker is a lot like a round of golf. You have to clear your mind of the last hole before you tee up for the next. Clear your head. Judge the wind. Whats the distance to your next goal. Which club should you use to set up your next shot. Then you clear your mind again and take your best shot.

Having a big stack simply opens up your options, allowing you to make more SOUND plays. It doesn't mean you should sacrifice the quality of your play. You still need to be choosing the right spots and trusting your reads. When I double or triple up early, I might start making the marginal calls on drawing hands a bit more. I'll also see more flops with small pairs, hoping to flop a set. I let the implied odds factor more into my decision making.

I try to reduce my distraction by setting my self goals with my preflop play. I aim to keep the 'flops I have seen' stats as low as possible, setting this as a target helps me to remember not to play poor hands and poor position.

I'm the same as you, brudda. I used to get completely frustrated with MTT when I would go cold for a while, watching peoples stacks get bigger while I'm bleeding.

Then I started multi-tabling tourneys or playing cash and tourneys at the same time. Odds are if you are playing three tables, you'll never go long without being able to play a hand on one of the three tables. And if you are playing 4-6 tables, something is always going on.

If you can handle a second, third or more tables, that will help cut down on the frustration-factor quite a bit.

Aldito said:

I was playing a tourney tonight, and the same problem occurred as usual. I was up to 8k chips within 45 minutes, putting me second out of 180. I was playing well, playing good hands hard in position, not bluffing, folding when I should etc. So about an hour later I'm getting frustrated, no decent hands for ages, and I started playing really marginal hands, unsuited connectors etc. I started doing ridiculous bluffs oop, calling raises with junk. I just couldn't concentrate at all.

Any suggestions? Quit tournaments completely? Stick to cash?

Thanks for any input.

Click to expand...

Hi,
so after 1hr45m you start to get boring ?
I suppose you start level 8 than, so isn't it time to loosen up and try to steal here and there ?
I can't imagine there aren't even any opportunities, and you don't need monsters to try to steal blinds.
Ask yourself, after this time, do you have any reads on the other players ?
Any idea what type of players they are ?
The early levels of a tournament could be kinda boring because you want to play tight, so good hands only.
However, this is where you have time to observe other players, make notes and think of a strategy to play them.
After a while, when blinds get higher, especially when antes appear it's time to widen your range to steal and your observations and notes you made when the play was kinda boring, now help you to know who to attack, who to fold to, who to reraise light.

Also, and this is not a recommendation, you could play 180 SnG turbo's as an alternative.
Just depends on your style.
They're seldom boring.

Personally I normally stick to 2 tables at a time, 1 "boring" one and 1 micro turbo.

Well good luck anyway.

The problem posed by OP here is at the crux of the successful jump to higher levels in tournament poker.

I will venture an educated guess that we all go through this, continually! We are human, and it is nearly impossible to to avoid that feeling of invincibility we all get when things start off well. Nearly impossible, but not absolutely impossible.

I know I struggle with it EVERY SINGLE TOURNEY I PLAY. It is a major reason I have always preferred HORSE tourneys. The changing games prevents me from falling into a rut. On those occasions where I show myself I have the right stuff and can avoid just playing hands because I have the big stack, I find I do much better. But during the middle stages of all MTT's we all suffer with some sort of anxiousness. Could be we don't think our big stack is big enough, or that we remember reading somewhere that as the big stack there are some fuzzy responsibilities involved to use that big stack like a club (nonsense for the most part), or in my personal case I get that feeling I need to be the Table Cop.

Proper poker can be extremely boring. They call it the grind for good reason. I almost always have some other distraction going during play, usually solitaire. Time dependent distractions like a significant other demanding time right now, or a side game like tetris don't work well. But solitaire is not time dependent.

Many folks deal with this by multi-tabling.

Perhaps the bottom line is yeah, you do increase your opportunities when you start well, but you (and I and everyone) need to remember that a 1% or 5% increase in steal attempts will suffice. You don't want to go hog-wild and steal every other hand. That for sure will end up pokercidal.

thetaxman1 said:

Poker is a lot like a round of golf. You have to clear your mind of the last hole before you tee up for the next. Clear your head. Judge the wind. Whats the distance to your next goal. Which club should you use to set up your next shot. Then you clear your mind again and take your best shot.

Click to expand...

+ This! :congrats:

My suggestion Is write a diary as u are playing a tourny. Helps you focus and you can see how many times u make a bad decision

Music

One really good strategy is to listen to music. A lot of pro are doing it. If you watch poker tournament on TV you will come to notice a lot of pro with Ipod to keep from the distraction and stay mellow.

if you're getting bored that quickly, than my adivice is mtt's ain't for u. play rings

but seriously, you may want to consider drinking alcohol (or something...) while you play or watching TV, or you could post to random threads on cc like i do, lol. The middle stages of mtt's sometimes are easier if you're not really paying too close of attention, especially if you play for low stakes

-n

Listen to some music, that always helps me focus in on mtt's

Well,at first you have to set your goal,,Imma win this thing'' and then try to relax a little and stay focused.I find it if i have a bad time in a tournament and there is the posibility of me going on tilt,i just sitout 2-3 minutes and then i come back.