How Serious Do You Take Tournament Poker?

[bonflizubi]

I think OP is on the right track - but I'd take it a notch back.

You can't will your self to win - it's impossible with cards.

But, you can:
-Concentrate on the task at hand. Watching TV at the same time <> playing seriously

-Play with confidence. If you aren't feeling confident you shouldn't be playing. Especially no-limit games which are games of aggression. And games where the slightest weakness is pounced upon.

-Like I said you can't will yourself to win. In fact you can play perfectly and in MTT's you are not going to cash 90% of the time anyway. THere is only one thing you can do: Make the best decisions possible - all the time, every time.

And to do that you need the knowledge obviously, but you cannot lose focus or take people lightly either. All it takes is one marginal error after hours of tremendous play to scuttle a potential final table cash into a few bucks instead. Don't say "oh fuggit, I call..."

-You can't quit either during a tny. Chip and a chair is no joke. You may not come back, but you can make the best choices you can given the situation.

-And lastly, if you are taking them seriously, it's not just about playing. It's about reviewing your play, and constantly learning. There's so much money to be made off people who think they are doing the right thing but don't realize it's the wrong thing it is ridiculous. Don't be one of them

 

[Mortis]

Very nice post, Norm! This is some good motivation for me.. especially since I've been running pretty bad lately, haha.

Hope you keep up the run that you have been having, too!

 

[Oskool]

I couldn't agree more with you. I find myself playing to play sometimes. When I really apply myself, I usually do well. Sometimes, I need to step up to a buy in that's realistically too big for my bankroll, but I seem to pay attention and play my best poker. It helps me get my mind back into the game. Good luck and keep it up.

 

[nevadanick]

I would like to take online tourneys seriously, but so few others do online that it doesn't seem to make sense.

Playing a lot of live tourneys vs. fewer online, it may be that online players don't take it seriously at any level of buy-in. I would say there are still some 'fun only' tourney players at live games, but far less than online. Live players are not anonymous either and that brings a more convention atmosphere to the tables, imo.

I try to take all my tourney play seriously. It's how I learned to play and to respect the game and have never wanted to change that. When I do, I think I'll stop playing altogether.

Nice post Norm.

 

[ozvillain]

Great post and V insightful. I'm going to try and bear this in mind every time I sit down to play a tourney.

 

[Bovinity]

I'll try to say what I said before without the crudeness.

It's very hard to take tournaments seriously. Larger ones, I mean. Single table SNG's and such - if you consider them tournaments - are a different story.

But when you sit down to a MTT, it's so hard to seriously tell yourself that you're really going to pull this one out. You pretty much know you aren't. You know why, too, because there's too many variables and coin flips stacked in great amounts against you.

Against a large field, "you" barely even matter, in fact, lets be honest. It's why the poker communities fixation on large tournaments is so bad for the "Luck vs. Skill" issue amongst lawmakers. Who could seriously sit down and watch a large MTT and walk away thinking it was a game of skill?

 

[bonflizubi]

I
Against a large field, "you" barely even matter, in fact, lets be honest. It's why the poker communities fixation on large tournaments is so bad for the "Luck vs. Skill" issue amongst lawmakers. Who could seriously sit down and watch a large MTT and walk away thinking it was a game of skill?

The people who regularly play large field MTT's and over thousands of games run 20-100% ROI? (And not all from one big score)

There is a reason that a very small % of players are winning players in the long run - most players in tournaments just suck. People who excel at tournaments.. and who play a TON of then to break the variance will inevitably wind up with all the money.

I'l just speak for myself here, but I never enter ANY tourney I don't think I have a decent chance of winning. Does that mean I expect too? no. But there are so many horrible players out there that a huge chunk of any large MTT is complete dead money...just little bait-fish waiting to be gobbled up.

I've finished top ~200 or so or better probably 6 times in the last month in 10,000+ player fields. I'm sure I got lucky in spots sure.. but I also know in reviewing those that I played damn well.

What's my point? The better players will will win more. And if you have an edge over the competition in that tournament, you really matter. If you are a weak player in the field you matter, but just relative to the question of who will get your chips first.

 

[MrEwubbsZ]

Im new to CC and this is one of the best post ive read on here so far.

Do work norm.

 

[PC69]

Im new to CC and this is one of the best post ive read on here so far.

Do work norm.

Decided to pop in here and read some of the replies. Much appreciated MrEwubbsZ but I promise you, that if you search the forums, your going to find much more meaty threads then this one. There's a lot of smart poker players here who have written many articles. Stick around here and read read read. This is chump change compared to some of the mind blowing thoughts some of the elite CC players have documented for us to gain from. Thats what makes this forum so great IMO. But I do appreciate your comment.

 

[womackcali02]

Good read! A bunch of very good points. I find that I personally play better when I am having fun. Which is normally when I am winning lol. I try to start every session thinking about how much I just love playing poker and why I contunue to play it day after day.