Seems to me a lot of tournament payouts come down to one showdown. You’re sitting nice as opponents fall away. You are in position with some pretty great looking preflop cards, you get raised and think this is the time so you shove a significant amount of your stack. We flip them over, you’re ahead, flop is great, then runner runner and it’s over, you’re left scrambling with a few blinds and two hand later you sit with your min cash and think about all the decisions and were they the right ones? Even if they are the right ones you still feel like, come on again! Why am I losing (usually to someone chasing shite and catching ) every time I get close to a new biggest payout? Yes pickup and start again I know but I then have a hard time getting started again back at the first step of the journey. Anyone else feeling the same? What do you do? Take a break or jump right back in?

Good post, I know where you're coming from. It's indeed hard especially the next tournament, after playing for so long in the last one, being so close and just ending with a cooler. For me it's hard if I can pinpoint a bad mistake, if I was out because of me. If I did most of it right or the mistake is a tiny one, after a few minutes I just don't think about it anymore. Why should I? Luck is a part of poker so I don't bother with that. I try and focus on my improvement, I don't expect to win any hand anymore, lost so many times with aces recently, I just focus on what I can do better.

In your case I understand you had a huge hand. I don't know the specifics but if you can't find a mistake in it, that is poker. Also what I also try to do when I get coolered is think of the times I did that to others haha. You can't win them all, but you can improve and eventually you will get to your desired payday. Don't know if this helps at all, just my thoughts. Good luck

Happens to us all. What you need to think about is if you can't deal with it you might not be a tournament player! Cash may be your game!

I have been here so many times it's incredibly frustrating. Keep your chin up and keep doing what's right and you will eventually run well enough to take something down or run really deep.
I had one yesterday 14 left I'm 4or 5th in chips utg raise and two calls to me with JJ I have 26bb I put it in the middle big blind calls everyone else folds big stack in BB has 77 I've got him crushed but low and behold he flops a set and I'm out.
You just think why can't I just hold this once poker is sometimes a cruel game. Keep up the good work and some run good will find it's way to you 😊

I’m playing four to five tournaments at a time during my sessions so ya it can happen a lot if your playing a ton. Here’s the thing tho, if your putting in decent volume and still having this trouble never making a FT or solid cash than you could be making some mistakes your unaware of.

Welcome to the tournament poker
That what happens all the time
All the time
All the time
And one more time
All the time

Originally Posted by Badday94

Good post, I know where you're coming from. It's indeed hard especially the next tournament, after playing for so long in the last one, being so close and just ending with a cooler. For me it's hard if I can pinpoint a bad mistake, if I was out because of me. If I did most of it right or the mistake is a tiny one, after a few minutes I just don't think about it anymore. Why should I? Luck is a part of poker so I don't bother with that. I try and focus on my improvement, I don't expect to win any hand anymore, lost so many times with aces recently, I just focus on what I can do better.

In your case I understand you had a huge hand. I don't know the specifics but if you can't find a mistake in it, that is poker. Also what I also try to do when I get coolered is think of the times I did that to others haha. You can't win them all, but you can improve and eventually you will get to your desired payday. Don't know if this helps at all, just my thoughts. Good luck

I almost wish I was getting coolered in those situations. It’s almost always someone getting paid for a call he should not have made. As I said when we turn our cards no matter the street 90% of ref time I’m ahead and my opponent has to hit one or two cards.

Originally Posted by Brentsn

As I said when we turn our cards no matter the street 90% of ref time I’m ahead and my opponent has to hit one or two cards.

In that case you are probably playing to tight and not giving yourself enough chances to steal the blinds or win a pot, which does not belong to you. This mean, you get blinded away, so when you finally pick up a big hand and get action, it HAS to hold, otherwise you are out of the tournament. Whereas had you had a bigger stack, it still sucks to lose a big pot. But you are not out of the tournament, so you still have a chance to make a comeback.

So my advice to you and anyone else, who feels this way, is to not focus on the hand, which send you out of the tournament. More often than not the real issue is in some of those hands, that went before it. And of course even if we play perfect, we are not always going to run deep in tournaments. This is just the way, it is, and the larger fields we play in, the more difficult it is to reach the final table. Which mean, that even when we cash in big field MTTs, it tends to be small cashes, which is not really enough to keep us above water in the long run.

After having the same thing happen to me more than a few times I, at first, thought I should be happy if I played my hand correctly and lost to variance. Ok, I got it in good but still lost and missed the bigger money prizes. After taking this route a few times I said, no, this isn't working. Now I take a different approach that seems to be working for me so far.

When I am in tournament that has passed thru the money bubble I now look at my stack and my position in the tournament. If I have one of the smaller stacks I decide to loosen my ranges and raise the aggression bar because I want to be in position to make the final table with a good stack. If I have a large stack and know I have a very good chance to make the final table then I play tight and let others blow themselves up. One thing I add, though, is I will fold a premium hand to a shove that will cost me all my chips, particularly pre-flop.

Originally Posted by gryphon3005

After having the same thing happen to me more than a few times I, at first, thought I should be happy if I played my hand correctly and lost to variance. Ok, I got it in good but still lost and missed the bigger money prizes. After taking this route a few times I said, no, this isn't working. Now I take a different approach that seems to be working for me so far.
When I am in tournament that has passed thru the money bubble I now look at my stack and my position in the tournament. If I have one of the smaller stacks I decide to loosen my ranges and raise the aggression bar because I want to be in position to make the final table with a good stack. If I have a large stack and know I have a very good chance to make the final table then I play tight and let others blow themselves up. One thing I add, though, is I will fold a premium hand to a shove that will cost me all my chips, particularly pre-flop.

Yes, I agree for the most part and basically do the same. Min cash difference to final table cash is usually not that big of a jump so generally I’ll push and if I bust so be it. No problem. It’s when I sitting with a nice stack and tighten up almost to the point of freezing up is another problem. I know I end up not going in with a lot I know I should. I tell myself about ICM and think is it really worth the risk? Or I wake up with something good and three people ahead have gone all in and and not wanting to risk my stack with my KJ.While this is happening it feels like every all in or bottom of the range cards I fold out hit for monster pots and any AA or AK I go in with whiffs.

Not to disparage anyone or how they play, but putting ALL your chips in preflop is leaving your hand up to fate. Sometimes fate shines on us - other times our opponent.

Post flop play truly is a skill a lot of players aren't great at. Sure if you flop top set - and a guy catches runner runner for the nut straight or flush - bad luck - it was going to happen anyway, and the guy was chasing. But just jamming a pocket pair pre is kinda silly - letting fate decide - rather than playing the game smartly.

This happens to me almost every tournament. I usually end up with a higher pair against an all in and they hit their 2 outer on turn or river. It’s extremely frustrating for sure. This is when the blinds get so big, you have no choice but to go all in. However, every now and then you manage to hit your two outer and your other hands hold and you make a nice payday. Unfortunately they are too far in between the frustrations.

MMs can even be. Playing a ScOOP is really different from this experience of playing a few hours / blinds / Showdawm

We all know this feeling and I do bubble a lot by this happening. There are many people who will just fold there way to the money and have no chips to play with once they get there. While is sucks to be knocked out this way, it maybe better to die there that barley make the money and have no chance to win.

Originally Posted by Luvepoker

We all know this feeling and I do bubble a lot by this happening. There are many people who will just fold there way to the money and have no chips to play with once they get there. While is sucks to be knocked out this way, it maybe better to die there that barley make the money and have no chance to win.

What about a chip and a chair? Biggest comeback 87 chips 1600 bb 90/90 all the way down to a 5th place finish.

Originally Posted by Brentsn

What about a chip and a chair? Biggest comeback 87 chips 1600 bb 90/90 all the way down to a 5th place finish.

How far into the tourney were you when you dropped down to 87 chips?

My biggest comeback was on the FT everyone remained, of a 800gtd, getting it all in my QQ vs JJ - I lost on the river, I had the guy covered by 100 chips when the blinds were something huge. I had less than a small blind remaining.
Next hand all in by default, my K/7 off hits and somehow holds - I get a triple up lol.

Long story short - I came back to take 3rd.

my friend, as I understand you, I think it's great that you realize this stage of the poker profession and start over is normal, working on mistakes will make you more successful, good luck to you)

Losing 1 or 2 allin is nothing. Losing 30-50 allin in a row, when you always have 50%+, is something. Come back to be sad, after that...

Try to change your mindset , how you look at things! Do not ever think about, "oh if i won here and doubled up and maybe picked up 1-2 more pots, I would have won 15x more, 1st place prize." That is NOT how poker or life works, there are NO IFS. If you get tilted after a suckout or lost flip, try to walk around , take a walk, take a shower, work out a bit, eat good food or meditate, take some form of rest. Look back at your bigger hands in a calm way, run the equities of the hand and range vs range, and you will see if you made a winning decision, only the RNG was not with you this time, then you should be OK with yourself. Come back tomorrow and sooner or later you will be on the winning side of flips. Math will do the work in the long run. And the short run is for fishes