How do you deal with a downhill spiral in tournaments?

Murasaki

Murasaki

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Hello all, in recent touraments I've entered, too many times after building up a healthy stack of chips, I then gradually lose them and even go out of the tournament. The main causes of my losses are bad hands, raise good hands but then get terrible flops, call a flop on potential straights or flushes and suffering bad beats in all-in battles from turn and river cards.

Am I just really unlucky in this game or am I doing something wrong that I'm not seeing?

PS - I typically go all-in with hands that has a 10 and J, Q, K or A which are suited or unsuited, or I have an A, K, Q or J with another suited card.
 
Luvepoker

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Hello all, in recent touraments I've entered, too many times after building up a healthy stack of chips, I then gradually lose them and even go out of the tournament. The main causes of my losses are bad hands, raise good hands but then get terrible flops, call a flop on potential straights or flushes and suffering bad beats in all-in battles from turn and river cards.

Am I just really unlucky in this game or am I doing something wrong that I'm not seeing?

PS - I typically go all-in with hands that has a 10 and J, Q, K or A which are suited or unsuited, or I have an A, K, Q or J with another suited card.
Hi Mate. Welcome to cardschat.
Downturns can be brutal and last a while. I have had my fair share of them over the years and in one at the moment. The thing is variance can be tough. It can last days weeks and months at time but it will turn. Trust me 42 tournaments in a row with no cash's can really make you wonder if poker is for you. Just remember that when it turns and you win 3 smaller tournaments in 3 days.
As for what your may or may not be doing wrong. We would need to see more details as to what your doing and when. You can put ome hands in this thread and many of us would love to help. With no details I could not really help you but your a smart player. The hardest things I see is people are 1st going to blame anything and everything but never question if they are doing something wrong.
Please do post some hands.
 
MK_

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I've been getting rivered for about 2 weeks now... it happens, from what I read it sounds like you're just going allin preflop and not playing hands?, if that's the case I would probably say you're creating a lot of your own bad luck which such a high variance style. If that's not the case and you're playing well building a stack and getting brutally rivered well yes it happens but what goes up must come down... eventually(y)
 
Mati532

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it's poker friend, it usually happens, just keep trying
 
Xyro2

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Well, maybe you could try playing a little safer for a while (less all-ins) untill you feel more confident with your hands again, or maybe even getting away from poker for some time. Of course poker is a game of strategy but luck plays a really big role. If you're only getting bad hands and unlucky flops there's really not much you can do, since you can't simply bluff all the time. I hope this downhill ends pretty soon so that you can recover your luck and enjoy playing poker again. Good luck, buddy!
 
PokerEdge

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Unfortunately, the variance can be very extreme in the short and long term, try to play more tournaments. We would really like to see concrete situations.
What good players always advise in this case is to try to find your bluff cards as often as possible, so open or raise the ideal positions.
 
Lena M

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Hi.
If you play with junk, this is a well-deserved result. Try to be patient and play with good cards then your results will improve a lot :)
 
Murasaki

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Hi all, thanks for the replies, so just recently I had a scenario in GGPoker that showcases what would happen to me, I would call an opponent's All In with a hand like this, especially when I feel desperate to gain chips to stay in a tournament comfortably. Did I do the right thing here or should I have had just folded?

EDIT: Another scenario, late in the tournament, 400k chips being less value, I called all in and got a flush draw, but then my opponent got full house. Once again, did I make the right call?
 

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Murasaki

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actually, I've made a new thread to hopefully get other's advice about these hands
 
makisaa

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You can play less games, or change game type. In these cases, where you go down, It think you must slow down a little, "change gear" and act carefully! With patience the storm will pass and better plays will happen!
 
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