Hey cardschat fam!
So recently I’ve just been playing a bunch of tournaments and playing very well.... but sometimes i just feel that bad luck gets the best of me and for the last few days I’ve just been loosing all in with like KK’s and they might have something like AJ or 77’s and always hit there cards!! Any playing advice to avoid this from happening all the time?
There's alot of relative information missing from your post - how many games are you playing on average per week? Per month? Do you have poker tracker or holdem manager so you can review these recent runs yourself? Mayne share them with a group of poker friends or a study group you are a part of - one thing that always helped me - and still does to this day - is having another set of eyes look at my play and give me an honest response.
Tournament poker is full of variance and it is a natural part of the game. Sometimes you will have days where you lose with AAs five time out of the six times you got them - sometimes days like that will run back to back and no matter how good you play it just isn't going to work out in your favor - that's just bad variance and the solution is to apply proper
bankroll management and play through the variance. If you find yourself tilting and it seems to be getting the better of you - then do NOT try to play through the bad variance - playing through only works when we are doing our best and making good decisions.
You have to remember days like this are normal. Days can run back to back and turn into weeks that can turn into months - ive been there, I lost about 65% of my entire roll in the midst of a 4 month swing because I didn't drop stakes fast enough to help myself minimize the damage. I've gotten most of it back but the point is I could've lost quite a bit less had I done what I KNOW to do. So if you feel like you are on a bad run - I seriously urge you to get one or more people to look at your recent runs and give you some feedback on your play. Keep an open mind, you might not love what they have to day but you at least need to consider their opinions.
At the end of the day and in summary to keep from rambling anymore - this is how we minimize tournament variance if you are taking the game seriously and trying to make money at it:
Put in sufficient volume -- this means at LEAST 100 games per month - I work a full time job and sometimes work 6 days per week and still put in 125-150 games per month - so I know it's possible.
Use good game selection - stop playing massive field tournaments! It's hard enough to beat 400 dummies, so beating 1100+ entries is going to be waaaay tougher simply because there's more variance in that field. A good example is the $2.75/2500 gtd on ACR - play the $3.30/1500 gtd instead -- the 2500 top prize is generally around $350 while the 1500 gtd top prize is generally about $320 or so - the difference is the 1500 has half the field size the 2500 does because everyone sees a bigger prize pool for less $$. In a nutshell - because of the player field size, you are way more likely to ship the 1500 before you ship that 2500 - so good game selection is key.
Bankroll management - there is no substitute for good brm. Know your limits, and drop down when you need to do so. It will save you from bleeding dry.
Study! Use the tools and people at your disposal to get better constantly. I study at LEAST 2 times a week for 3-4 hours per session and most of the time it's more than twice a week. Trust me, there is always something good to learn in this game.
I hope this is helpful, good luck to you on and off the tables.
