My thoughts.

fade2black

First off, excuse me if this thread is a bit repetitious....

I enjoy poker, it's a rollercoaster ride that brings so many emotions. I don't post much on this part of the forum but I read pretty much every post. i play a lot of live poker tournaments in Waterford and have done quite well out of them but I've yet to discover what makes a great poker player. I think I'm pretty good, but really, you can only be as good or better than the person you're up against.

Tonight I enter a tournament online. 7500 guaranteed. 740 players. Down to 190 players....now I have some questions about where to go from here.

I had about 6000 in chips and the blinds were 200/400. i'm trying to get a read on the table and I think I have a few players pegged. Then i'm moved. Okay...new table, couple of times players have gone all in to me when I've had JQo, or KQo...and I fold, because mainly, and it's a fault in my game I think, I'm terrified of Aces. When I have an Ace, I'm terrified of the kicker...Essentially, when I get so far in a tournament, I really want to do well and not get eliminated so I play with a little more conservatism (although I do try the occasional bluff if I have a read on a player)....My question here is...what value do all of you put on KQ etc in these positions?

Here was my downfall anyway...Guy with 2000 goes all in...I have AQ, I go all in too. Chap beside me has 23000 and he raises it. Everyone else folds. Just the three of us. 2000=A9 6000(me) AQ 23000 TT.

Flop comes A 7 Q

10

2

Not a nice way to go out and left me with a hollow feeling but I don't think I did anything wrong in this move. Maybe I did...Any opinions?

Lafortezza

You were a huge favourite on the flop, massive in fact, so the fact that this one time the guy with TT hit another ten means nothing. If you had the same situation 100 times, you'll win it 90+ (i'm probably wrong with that figure but the answer is 'loads of times' anyway).

The thing about tournaments is that to get a decent money finish (more than once or twice the buy-in) you have to take risks and you more than likely have to get quite lucky on occasion. It's very very rare that you have a perfect tournament where everything falls into your lap.

If you play alot of tournaments and Stt's and feel like doing some reading I'd recommend the books by Dan Harrington and Sklansky's Tournament poker for Advanced players.


And post about the Waterford tournaments too, there's probably some people on this board from that neck of the woods who might not know about them.

fade2black

Cool, thanks for the reply.

I'm not a risky player but at the same time I'm not a thoroughly solid player that can be read like a billboard....except when the pressure is on... Devore gave a great piece of advice in another thread and I'm sure you've given it yourself lafortezza, "You won't win if you're afraid to lose". This is the main reason why I don't play cash games in the poker club...a situation where I can be bullied by the man with bits of europe hanging out of every pocket, I much prefer the unbiased level playing field that is the tournament.

I got unlucky tonight, but I wrote this thread because I always seem to get unlucky...my last tournament exit was with 3 aces, sure...maybe it's just a tough spell that I'm in the middle of but I decided that I also needed to stand back for a second and look at my play.

Shortstack

Play more & more and you will be numb to these hands. You will always lose a lot of hands when you are ahead. Start to think of results by 'how happy you are with the way you played' rather that by where you finished or how much you won. By the sounds of it you played well.

Here are two hands in successive tournaments I was on the recieving end in, they may cheer you up.

I have 4 4 and limp. Flop is A 8 4 rainbow. I check and re-raise a bet all in, called by A8, 8 on turn.

I make a big re-raise preflop with AKs in rebuy stage of PPP 7.5k - two callers, one all in. Flop is K 2 2 I put other player all in and I find I am up against JJ and 10 10 , river is a 10.

fade2black

Ouch. I guess we all have bad beat stories to tell, but someone has to win all those tournaments online and poker would become a less appealing game if they were won by someone different each time, like for instance...the lottery. I'm gonna keep reading...

jtsuited

Are there any regular games in waterford? Me girlfriend lives down there and when i'm down there i'm always itching for a game.

fade2black

Believe it or not there are tournaments on 6 nights a week and you can play a cash game 7 nights a week.

Sunday - Poker Club €20 rebuy tournament - Poker Club (will mention name and give website if permitted)

Monday - Pub game - 12 unlimited rebuy for first hour

Tuesday - Poker Club - €20 Freeze out

Wednesday - Poker Club - €50 Freeze out
Pub Game - 15 rebuy 3 times

Thursday - Poker Club - €20, 1 rebuy, 1 top up

Friday - Poker Club - €100 freeze out

Fatboydim

I would say that the only thing you could have done differently on the hand you describe is flat call the all in raiser... [You don't say what position you were in but clearly there were players to act behind you] As then it gives you play after the flop. It's possible then that the guy with tens would have called too - although of course he could have reraised... But then you could fold to his reraise and still be in the tournament. For the record he had the best hand pre-flop. [But many good players would have folded the tens faced with a raise all in and reraise all in] But had you been able to play post flop - with say 6k in the pot and then gone all in with your two pair - You may have taken it down.

The thing to realise however is that the best players will often go out with the best hands.

fade2black

True but to be honest if I flat called the initial all in (lower chips than myself) and the big chip stack raised I probably would've taken my chance there and then...although at that point I could have that raiser thinking that by just calling I was showing some weakness....hmm lots to think about here

Theres one thing that gave me a leap in the quality of my poker play - and thats a particular chapter in Sklansky advanced poker book - the hand groupings.
AQ off suit is not really a great hand. Its not an important pot winning hand that i would back by any means unless i had a few rebuys available.
A lot of players back AJ os and AQ os, these can be good hands of course but not ones to back when things get tight and people are all in pre-flop.
A very noticable thing when i started using these groupings was I began knocking people out of tounaments when they were backing AQ and AJ, instead of the other way around, which believe me happened a lot.

Lplate

IMO you've done nothing wrong here. If your hand wins, you have around 17K in chips and may go on to win or do very well. In any MTT that you do well in, you will look back and see a few hands where things went your way that may have gone the other way and knocked you out. That is the nature of tournaments. You must play well AND have a lot of luck on your side. If you play them regularly and bring your "A" game to all of them, then you will get your fair share of luck in the end. One good MTT win, such as the 7.5K, will pay for a lot of tournament entries over a year and 2 or 3 will put you in profit. As an example, I won 6 good MTT's during Nov and Dec last year, made a load of dough and thought I had the game cracked. But I haven't won any online since, despite several final tables. I'm sure I'll win again but when I do there will be important hands that I've won where I've been a dog. This is the nature of MTT's. Keep playing and your turn will come.

Lafortezza

fade2black wrote:

Believe it or not there are tournaments on 6 nights a week and you can play a cash game 7 nights a week.

Sunday - Poker Club €20 rebuy tournament - Poker Club (will mention name and give website if permitted)

Monday - Pub game - 12 unlimited rebuy for first hour

Tuesday - Poker Club - €20 Freeze out

Wednesday - Poker Club - €50 Freeze out
Pub Game - 15 rebuy 3 times

Thursday - Poker Club - €20, 1 rebuy, 1 top up

Friday - Poker Club - €100 freeze out

Feel free to pots the name and contact details of the club. I didn't know there was organised poker in Waterford.

fade2black

Thanks Lafortezza.

www.blazinaces.com is the club

The pubs running tournaments are Alfies on a monday and 19 on a wednesday.

Id say that freezeout on a friday is a bit crazy everyone nicely oiled up!....could be some easy pickins!!

califano

jtsuited wrote:

Are there any regular games in waterford? Me girlfriend lives down there and when i'm down there i'm always itching for a game.

thats not all i'd be itching for.