Tournament Take Aways

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Tk_Poker

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Lately I have been trying to get back into the game and improve after taking many years off. The last couple of times I have been super nervous when in tournaments almost to the point that I would get jitters and my heart would start pounding out of my chest when I made a raise or attempted to bluff. I entered a $50 tournament today at the Daytona Poker room and here are a few take aways from today.

I took an adderall before going..(prescribed) definitely helped out a lot. I was calm and no jitters. My game strategy was to play solid poker and be rather tight only playing premium hands and trying to steal some blinds from the button or late position. I think overall that I played pretty decent and I was able to pick up on some pretty obvious tells. A guy to my right would become very animated, almost like he couldn't control his excitement (his face would contort and he would squint and make huffing sounds) when he had a hand and always checked by beating his hand on the table 3 times and would fumble to get his chips. There was another guy who was a nit and would act like he was going to bet, pick up chips and then set them down and check.. he did it on 3 separate hands. I thought he was screwing with me at first but he was just afraid to bet and it was a sign of weakness so the next time he did it I raised him and he folded,

There are areas of my game that definitely need improvement. I need to work on 3 betting more and I have an issue with being over zealous and over betting especially in the first 20 min of the tournament.

I had a situation today, it was early in the tournament, where I was in the small blind and I had K,9 Spades, blinds were 25/50 so I bet 300. I actually meant to bet 200 but I let an extra 100 chip slip in there by mistake. BB calls me and I think I had 2 other callers as well. Flop comes out 2s Js Kd, great so now I am on a flush draw with top pair. I bet 1500 and BB calls me and so does one other player. Turn is a 10s making the flush and here is where I made a mistake.. I'm thinking that I have top pair and K high flush and that there is only one car that can beat me so I bet 2500 (over bet) thinking that I'm going to take down the pot but to my surprise BB calls and so does the other player in highjack. Turn is a J giving a possible full boat and so I had to slow down and check, BB checks and so does, player in highjack. Big Blind turns over As 6s, highjack turns over 7s 4s. Cost me half of my stack and had to struggle to get back to where I started. I had pocket KK's early on, within the first 5 hands and bet 400 preflop and got no callers.. figures.

For the remainder of the tournament I hovered around 20-30 Big Blinds and it seemed like each time I would take down a pot the blinds would go up and then I would be in danger again. This forced me to shove preflop a few times and I was able to get some folds and a few calls where I get some chips. Finally about mid way through with blinds at 400-800 I was down to 9 BB and I got KJ suted on the button so I shoved and cot a call and the guy had As 7os and flopped 2 spades and got runner runner spades to make the flush. Overall it was a good learning experience and I have another tournament next weekend with my local poker group at the same poker room in Daytona FL.
 
eetenor

eetenor

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Nerves are Tilt.

Lately I have been trying to get back into the game and improve after taking many years off. The last couple of times I have been super nervous when in tournaments almost to the point that I would get jitters and my heart would start pounding out of my chest when I made a raise or attempted to bluff. I entered a $50 tournament today at the Daytona Poker room and here are a few take aways from today.

I took an adderall before going..(prescribed) definitely helped out a lot. I was calm and no jitters. My game strategy was to play solid poker and be rather tight only playing premium hands and trying to steal some blinds from the button or late position. I think overall that I played pretty decent and I was able to pick up on some pretty obvious tells. A guy to my right would become very animated, almost like he couldn't control his excitement (his face would contort and he would squint and make huffing sounds) when he had a hand and always checked by beating his hand on the table 3 times and would fumble to get his chips. There was another guy who was a nit and would act like he was going to bet, pick up chips and then set them down and check.. he did it on 3 separate hands. I thought he was screwing with me at first but he was just afraid to bet and it was a sign of weakness so the next time he did it I raised him and he folded,

There are areas of my game that definitely need improvement. I need to work on 3 betting more and I have an issue with being over zealous and over betting especially in the first 20 min of the tournament.

I had a situation today, it was early in the tournament, where I was in the small blind and I had K,9 Spades, blinds were 25/50 so I bet 300. I actually meant to bet 200 but I let an extra 100 chip slip in there by mistake. BB calls me and I think I had 2 other callers as well. Flop comes out 2s Js Kd, great so now I am on a flush draw with top pair. I bet 1500 and BB calls me and so does one other player. Turn is a 10s making the flush and here is where I made a mistake.. I'm thinking that I have top pair and K high flush and that there is only one car that can beat me so I bet 2500 (over bet) thinking that I'm going to take down the pot but to my surprise BB calls and so does the other player in highjack. Turn is a J giving a possible full boat and so I had to slow down and check, BB checks and so does, player in highjack. Big Blind turns over As 6s, highjack turns over 7s 4s. Cost me half of my stack and had to struggle to get back to where I started. I had pocket KK's early on, within the first 5 hands and bet 400 preflop and got no callers.. figures.

For the remainder of the tournament I hovered around 20-30 Big Blinds and it seemed like each time I would take down a pot the blinds would go up and then I would be in danger again. This forced me to shove preflop a few times and I was able to get some folds and a few calls where I get some chips. Finally about mid way through with blinds at 400-800 I was down to 9 BB and I got KJ suted on the button so I shoved and cot a call and the guy had As 7os and flopped 2 spades and got runner runner spades to make the flush. Overall it was a good learning experience and I have another tournament next weekend with my local poker group at the same poker room in Daytona FL.


When we are feeling fear and nervousness it is because we are emotionally focused on the outcome not rationally focused on our play. When we lack confidence in our skills emotion creeps in and takes over our brains. Work on your skills and focus on your hand to hand play not the overall outcomes. It will help

Ks9s in the SB. You had two limpers and you raise with a weak hand? Nobody folds? In games where nobody folds why are we building a big pot with a weak hand out of position? In nobody folds games players limp K10 KJ even KQ and then call raises some might even limp AK late just to see if they hit.

They also call with most Ax hands so why are we building pots that will then be incredibly difficult to play? Why put our stack in danger when we do not have to in a tournament?

As played.
Pot on flop is 1200 you bet 1500 1.4 pot, why so much? Hands that can beat you will call and hands that you beat easily will fold. Again we are also putting our stack in danger for no good reason.
Turn the pot is 5700 you bet less than half pot and call it an (over bet)? Why do you think that is an over bet?
Why do you make that bet size if you expect folds when you have the flush? The key to No Limit is to try to get chips when we are ahead not to get folds from draws. So if we expect folds at 2500 we bet less 1500 again or 2000.When we make the second best flush we bet for value hoping we get called by 7s4s and by AsKd. Ace spade K no spade is only 13% to beat us- a set is only 20% -KQs is dead. We want calls on that turn!

You are very lucky that the BB has no clue how to play poker. You should have doubled up the BB when they shove all in on the turn. Another reason why not to build big pots with K9 in No Foldem games out of position is other players play All AsXs for any size of preflop bet.

This is intended only to get you to think about your play and the reasons why you took your actions.

Hope this helps

:):)
 
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