I'm currently having two problems after the second hour of any tournaments.

1) At some point on the tournament, i loose a big hand (half of stack) sometimes it's cause i made mistakes playing it and others the opponent had better hands. After that lost, i tend to fall, by fall i mean that after that i am not able to get back in it and im out a few hands later.

2) Usually i start great, making stacks of 10k or more with 50/100 blinds, but i get stock most of the time. I just don't get any hand that i can play and after a while the blinds have killed me.

I think that i lost focus in my game, and i dont know what to do. Hope you can help me.

Best books I can think of for this type of problem in your game is The Mental Game of Poker 1 & 2 by Jared Tendler. These will step you thru some self analysis to help you diagnose what is happening. Then it will show you how to take steps to correct the issues at hand.

Jared also has a podcast called The Mental Game Podcast. He has a fair amount of episodes already you can download and listen to and release new stuff sporadically. Great content on there as well.

Take care and keep getting better.

Originally Posted by JPainTrainSicko

Best books I can think of for this type of problem in your game is The Mental Game of Poker 1 & 2 by Jared Tendler. These will step you thru some self analysis to help you diagnose what is happening. Then it will show you how to take steps to correct the issues at hand.

Jared also has a podcast called The Mental Game Podcast. He has a fair amount of episodes already you can download and listen to and release new stuff sporadically. Great content on there as well.

Take care and keep getting better.

Thanks, im going to look at it.

Originally Posted by JPainTrainSicko

Best books I can think of for this type of problem in your game is The Mental Game of Poker 1 & 2 by Jared Tendler. These will step you thru some self analysis to help you diagnose what is happening. Then it will show you how to take steps to correct the issues at hand.

Jared also has a podcast called The Mental Game Podcast. He has a fair amount of episodes already you can download and listen to and release new stuff sporadically. Great content on there as well.

Take care and keep getting better.

This is a great read. Even the best players are tending to tilt after loosing big hand. You need experience. The first step is that you understand that you have a problem in your game. So you must work on that. The next time you are in such situation you will be better.

Focus is a real personal thing and what works for some does not work for others.
For me I tend to get up and move around on the breaks to get the blood flowing.
Breathing techniques can also help by taking 10 deep breathes through the nose,it will boost the body and wake it up a little.

I also do something a little off by playing chess,it helps me because I lose focus quickly and need to over stimulate. This is what I mean by personal help,it most likely does not work for most.

to get these stacks do you take risks with preflop calls, and then win the huge stacks with a good standing hand but one that probably should have been folded pre?

or are you playing pure ABC TAG at the start of the tournament?

reason i ask is if your losing 1 big hand then chasing to get your stack back this could be a main concern and a HUGE leak in your game if that is the case

the other reason is to do with the other part..... are you staying too tight, or if you was making weak calls early, staying too light. and either your missing the flops and unable to continue, or not getting the hands if your still playing tight.... again this is a LEAK in the game

but all that is circumstantial, so you need to ask yourself if your doing either of those things, what your suggesting is the issue can be explained by either of those, but only you know if thats the issue

It also could be MTTs arent for you because you cant keep focus, again only you can decide that

when i find myself loosing focus after a short time like that in MTT's, I go back to playing 45 man SnG's. When I am cashing in them I bump it up to 90 or 180 man SnG's. It gets you used to the longer time frame it takes to make it into the money. After cashing in couple 180 man I go back to playing the MTT's.

Also don't play just for the sake of playing be rested and relaxed.

PS has bumped the late reg periods to 2.5 hours so its going to take roughly 3.5 hours to make it too the money and much longer to the final table.