Does anyone have any advice on how to avoid bad luck in tournaments? I know one try to raise pre-flop to avoid family pots with premium starting hands, and never let a fish draw for cheap. But is there really anything else? I always hear that it's better to be lucky then good, but I believe it's better to be skilled and not unlucky.

That's funny question.
Why? Simply because there are obviously no chance to avoid bad luck. If you have a bad poker day, then no matter what you do, you will be loosing. The only thing you can do with that, hold yourself from tilting, being less aggressive and pay less for non-nuts hands. Or even better realize your "bad luck earlier" and just close your poker room and do something else. Better than loosing the whole tho.

Originally Posted by Just_a_Tom

I know one try to raise pre-flop to avoid family pots with premium starting hands, and never let a fish draw for cheap.

And by the way, this is just a good reasonable way of playing poker. Has nothing to do with avoiding bad luck. Obviously you should isolate your opponent with a premium pairs. Cause even Aces are standing pretty suck in a multipot. And surely you should not let your opponents with a draw hand see next card cheap. They should pay and better worse price, as their chances. Every time you do proper bet size and your opponent call it, you are making +EV and he -EV on a distance, no matter if they accomplish their flush or straight at the end of the hand. And this kind of thinking you should get used to if you want to be profitable player. Also you shouldn't care much if you made a right moves, but your opponent got lucky at the end, although he made several mistakes. It can happen and you loose money at that moment, but you shouldn't feeling bad, because if you keep doing right decisions, on a long distance it will pay you out. Your opponents can't be lucky too often.

I chuckled when I read the OP. Not to make fun but I think a lot about avoiding luck too. I believe every tourney player thinks this too. I don't know about you but you have to just take it in and embrace the luck element of Poker. Every winning player will tell you that if it weren't for luck, they wouldn't be in their spot without it.

Now with that said, combine skill with luck is what can be difficult for every poker player. It is what makes poker what it is. It's us playing one another with "luck" involved and how we play one another with luck in the mix of the game. That is the very heart of the game.

Mentally, you want to be the better player that can withstand the luck of the game to make it to the end. It's not about getting busted with the best hand knowing some donk just called my jam with K4o against my AKs and a pair of 4's hit the flop and river.

What I say at this is if it wasn't luck involved or what we call variance, then we wouldn't be playing poker to be honest. There would be no fun in it.

I often say to myself. Find your edge in variance. I play 8 other players, what is my edge at this table? Embrace the variance. Own it and play through it.

Originally Posted by alienat3d

That's funny question.
Why? Simply because there are obviously no chance to avoid bad luck. If you have a bad poker day, then no matter what you do, you will be loosing. The only thing you can do with that, hold yourself from tilting, being less aggressive and pay less for non-nuts hands. Or even better realize your "bad luck earlier" and just close your poker room and do something else. Better than loosing the whole tho.

And by the way, this is just a good reasonable way of playing poker. Has nothing to do with avoiding bad luck. Obviously you should isolate your opponent with a premium pairs. Cause even Aces are standing pretty suck in a multipot. And surely you should not let your opponents with a draw hand see next card cheap. They should pay and better worse price, as their chances. Every time you do proper bet size and your opponent call it, you are making +EV and he -EV on a distance, no matter if they accomplish their flush or straight at the end of the hand. And this kind of thinking you should get used to if you want to be profitable player. Also you shouldn't care much if you made a right moves, but your opponent got lucky at the end, although he made several mistakes. It can happen and you loose money at that moment, but you shouldn't feeling bad, because if you keep doing right decisions, on a long distance it will pay you out. Your opponents can't be lucky too often.

Exactly this, there is no way to avoid the "luck" factor, it's just variance. No matter how you play it will always be there. It's basically like rolling a dice, 5 out of 6 times you don't roll 1. Even tho those are good odds, it will mean that 1 out of 6 times you WILL roll 1 (in the long run).

Best thing to do, just accept that every now and then it won't work out (maybe even more often than you think) and be happy with the good play ^^

There's no luck in poker, haven't you heard? It's all "variance"

In fact, I do not call it luck, but many and many times opponents come into the pot with marginal hands, for example an A7o, which is a hand that is often lost in the after-flop, because you end up flopping an A in the Most of the time either the villain has 2 pairs or has an A with a stronger Kiker, so this is not a "lucky" factor, but a poorly played hand, when entering pots with these hands that is for blef, and always, Always covers from its discretion the adequate value of each action.

Now you from AA, KK, QQ, AKs and even JJ end up losing to weaker hands this is considered variance, the correct one before you start a bet is you already have a plan of what to do certain situation happens.

The secret is always to have a plan that is more profitable in the long run!

GL....

You need both skill and luck especially in those large field mtts. Play a solid game but at some points you will need luck to win a couple coinflips to make it to the money and even more so the final table. So Gl

Originally Posted by Just_a_Tom

Does anyone have any advice on how to avoid bad luck in tournaments? I know one try to raise pre-flop to avoid family pots with premium starting hands, and never let a fish draw for cheap. But is there really anything else? I always hear that it's better to be lucky then good, but I believe it's better to be skilled and not unlucky.

There are no pills from bad luck buddy))Just build your game and go on.I know the right decision is to play more,for e.g. you play 4 events online and on first your aa crushed and on second you double up and go further.That is how to go deeper and at the end you ll play one event but in bubble or better -on final table!!!

Failures can not be avoided. Poker is an unpredictable game. You should try to avoid mistakes.It will increase your chances of winning.

Well there is really no way to fully evade bad luck in poker, when poker inherently involves luck, especially tournaments.

But I think the best way to try to is to avoid calling all-ins preflop around bubble time against low stacks for a coin flip and keep pots at reasonable prices so you are not committed to it should someone get lucky on you.

Every tournament has bad luck.
You can't avoid it, can only reduce lose. Don't all-in at preflop is one way.

From failures nobody is insured,no matter how well you played.

Play a lot of tournaments and don't worry about bad beats - embrace them since you got your chips in good. Do this a lot and you will eventually win heaps.

Good luck to you!

Learn from watching others at your table who isnt afraid to lose their buyin, they wont be afraid to call your bluffs. Also figure out the fish so you can try to make your stack from them. Avoid bad beats by analyzing all possible outcomes.

Originally Posted by Lerts

You need both skill and luck especially in those large field mtts. Play a solid game but at some points you will need luck to win a couple coinflips to make it to the money and even more so the final table. So Gl

You are very right there. You need luck at MTTs more than anywhere else at poker. Simply because they are running for a long time and you can't avoid the cooler moments and then you have to be a favorite or winning pair of coin flips. And you have to loose a lot of tournaments before you get at final table. That's why we have pretty conservative bankroll management for such kind of poker. 100buy-ins, instead of 35, as it is for STT. Have to keep that in mind, playing in every MTT your best poker and hoping you will have some luck to make it this time to the FT.

Running bad can take many forms. You can constantly get your money in with a two pair against a flush draw and lose. You can constantly run your KK into AA. Or you can experience the secret kind of run bad where you flop a set against QQ, but the turn card is a King and now QQ doesn’t pay you off. The thing you have to remember is that this is what you signed up for!

As for me , I think that luck is very important thing during any poker tournament but the other thing is that "luck' goes to only one person during one tournament and it is not always you are that lucky person!!!!! And one more thing , I think that "luck" loves good experienced poker player!!!!

You can't altogether avoid it, but if you feel that you're the better player, try to play smaller pots and don't flip.

If you knew how to completely avoid bad luck then you'd be the best poker player who ever lived by some margin.

It's not possible. You just have to try to cope with it better than anyone else.

all you can do is try to read the board get to know the players and try to figure through betting where you are in a hand. There are a lot of draw hands that can catch and you just have to get in with the best of it and hope you are the one getting lucky

The main mistakes in poker, without which you can avoid bad luck:
1. Playing too many hands.
2. The pursuit of the best combination.
3. Wrong bet size.
4. The influence of emotions on the game.
5. The game is out of position.
6. Too much bluff.
I think that about half of the cases, when a person plays poker - he was not lucky. Just need to play quality poker.

Originally Posted by Just_a_Tom

Does anyone have any advice on how to avoid bad luck in tournaments? I know one try to raise pre-flop to avoid family pots with premium starting hands, and never let a fish draw for cheap. But is there really anything else? I always hear that it's better to be lucky then good, but I believe it's better to be skilled and not unlucky.

A well-known fact that in poker you need luck , of course, but more important that knowing how and where to apply his strength. Where better to bluff , and where need to fold card.

Get it in good and hope for the best. There is not to many ways to avoid bad luck. Takes a long time of playing to shake of a bad streak. Just make the best decisions u can and don't play loose and get pot commited

There is no luck in poker but instead it's called variance. The ups and down swings that people and players go through. It happens to everyone at some point.

The only true way to avoid 'bad luck' in MTTs is to not play.

If you don't play, there is no chance of 'bad luck' happening to you.

Playing online poker for money, a successful player can expect to win in 60-70% of gaming sessions. Even in the case of a maximum of 70%, you will still lose in three out of ten sessions. And since the situations do not repeat in the maps, losing sessions will not always be distributed evenly, alternating with long periods of wins. You can lose for five or six consecutive sessions, and sometimes - several weeks or months. The reason for this may be a bad game, bad luck (known in poker as a "variance") or both. Such periods are called a series of failures. Strips of failure sooner or later come in the life of each player. If your band of failures drags on, it's important to know how to get out of it and keep self-confidence.

there is no way to avoid bad luck on poker tournaments. only on the long run if you make the best decisions you are going to run deep and win money and even though skill is an important factor, you cannot control luck and there is no way to win a tournament if you dont have some luck.

And stay lucky,,,, that what my dad taught me!!!. you can go all in with the best hand get get burnt..... that guy who just beat your pocket AA. got lucky.! hell win if he keeps crushing hands that are better then his!

Will not run away from failures. They will always be like death.
But in poker there's a way to avoid failure. Into it just doesn't play it.
On learn from mistakes.

how to avoid it I just do not see how this will happen
if we know when we die will dig their own grave
what do you think?

you will never know , and you can't run away from bad luck , and bad beats , because simply some people do crazy things that you never expect to happen especially at micro buy-ins , just play your game tight-agressive , at least you will minimize your loosing spots

theres always bad beats in poker no matter how well you play..

Bad beats and suckouts are a necessary part of the game and they are very much a good thing. Have a laugh about it, pay your tax, and move on to the next hand.

It's not a question of bad or good luck, somethimes it's more a question of which hand that i can drop instead of playing it. That what i do and my play is better.

By definition, it is impossible to change your luck. Your only option is to play smart and not let bad outcomes affect your game - Its not easy but you should always feel good knowing you made the smart play despite the outcome

I always wonder the same question as well, to me there isn't anyway to avoid bad luck.

You bet thinking to protect your hand but your opponent call the bet and end getting beat anyway

You check to invest as little as possible but still get beat

That's poker

You can't avoid being unlucky, just play your good hands without fear and if you lose remember that it's in the game..

I think this is an excellent question and everyone probably has their own concept of how to put luck out of the equation (as much as possible) I would say avoid all ins when you can, because they are mostly coin flips. Even if you did get bad beated and you still have some chips, dont let the tilt get to you, play calm and try to win those chips back playing premium hands. Bluff every now and then when the tourney is on the bubble phase because players tend to be very tight at this stage. Poker is a game of skill and luck and when it comes down to it you need SOME luck to win and place in tournaments.

Success is not luck. What is the point of arguing that everyone has his own understanding of the word "luck". Why just maximally non-exclude the factor of luck from your game. Do not play those hands in which there is no certainty and that's all. And when all the same you get into the distribution, be assured of the 100% that will win.

Just dont play the MTT's MTT's are full of variance so you should be very lucky to win them

visualize the flops turns and rivers going your way patiently and be aware of opponents betting patterns

It's variance and is unavoidable to a certain extent. Play solid poker and it washes out in the long run. We all have been sucked out on by runner runner or rivered and we all have sucked out ourselves.

I think it's like dance on the blade, you must to feel a that facet)

Here's where I think many players go wrong. Artificially inflating the pot with a hand that can easily be beaten on future streets is very high variant poker. Its difficult to handle the swings. (You must have a big bankroll to roll this way)

I say instead, play smart. Small ball is a good strat. If your gut says you're beaten, fold! I too have fallen into the trap of calling, just to see their cards. DONT DO THIS!! 10% of the time you are going to get bluffed (so you bluff catch) 90% of the time you are crushed and are Mr/Mrs chip donor. Learn to fold when you should and your game will improve immensely!
Just my 2c

From failure, no one is immune. You can to some extent reduce the percentage of lost tournaments, your ability to play. But you can not absolutely get rid of losing. And luck without the ability to play dummy.

For me bad luck is bad beat in just one day I lose 3 MTT with good tree pairs KK twice and QQ and my decision was going to do anything and no play more that day. Maybe I made some mistake playing those cards, but the emotions and the angry was not a good combination in that moment. Take your time and start again.

The main thing is not to go with the emotions in falling in tilt, In this state, the thinking could not adequately work, and logic gives way to abstract thinking, which is not considered a good helper in poker. Plays so that you opponent could not read you

You have to turn bad luck into a game strategy, then it will depend on your abilities and studies.

You cant avoid it. Just close your poker softwares and go for a walk, then get back and start playing again. If the bad luck still with you, just go to netflix and get back to poker in the next day.

I don't believe in bad luck with Poker hands, Most of it comes from the table you are at and how aggressive those players tend to be. Most of the time, I fold on hands that I might have a decent shot at winning, but since there are already 1-2 all in's i'm not willing to bet my tourney life on a chance with these said players