(Cuz not all of my readers here go near the Forum. This is a REPOST!)
A little over a week ago I posted a column about recent struggles I had been having at the poker tables. I also had keyed in on what I thought my problem was, and went back to the tables with no other goal than to play angry. It worked right away, as I won a $20 SNG, All In Or Fold (Lots of strategery used in this tournament.), and finished 4th in a $20 Omaha MTT for a nice score.
Well, that run has continued since it started. Right now I am in a zone when I am at the table. It isn't something I have the capability to describe, but I'm sure some of you have been there, and know what I mean. Literally everything I do is coming up roses. I'm making all the right reads when I need to, bluffing at the right pots, etc. Let's take a look at the numbers:
I have played in 20 public tournaments (Sit and go's and Private MTT's are not included in these numbers.)
- In 13 of those tournaments I have finished in the money.
- In 6 of those tournaments I have reached the Final Table.
- My highest finish in any of them was 2nd.
- I have made a net profit of $926.42 in these 20 tournaments.
It's a pretty good week, and I'm happy with it. One part of it I'm not happy with though, and it's eating me up inside.
I have not won a tournament since August 2005.
I have won 11 tournaments online in my lifetime. (I've only been playing online for about 15 months. Again Privates and SNG's aren't included in these numbers) 7 have been here on Full Tilt (Including the very first tournament I ever played on this site, a $5 NLHE.) 2 on PokerStars, and 2 on Ultimate Bet.
Now I am not complaining really cuz I am having a very decent amount of success lately. The fact I am not winning any of these tournaments is getting very frustrating though. In just about every Final Table I've reached in this span I have played VERY WELL during the tournament, then at the Final Table I shafted. I have not ONCE gotten all my money in at the Final Table with the worst hand in the entire run. (Ok, well, after I get the screw job and I'm stuck with 4x the BB I have gotten all my money in with the worst hand.) If people have trouble believing that feel free to PM me and I'll email you each hand.
Obviously losing with the best hand is a common occurrence in this game, but timing is also key. It's getting to a point, that while I'm in the first stages of a tournament leading up to the final table, I have all the confidence in the world. I know I'm going to get there, it's just a matter of how many chips will I have. Then I get to the Final Table, and it's more like "Wait for it......wait for it...I have AA....here it comes."
So the thought crossed my mind, "Maybe since I'm expecting bad things to happen I'm doing something with my play that is causing bad stuff to happen." So I have been going over hand histories from Final Tables, and for the most part I can't see anything I wouldn't normally do at any point in time.
In today's tournament, I was inspired by Clovis' power of position posts yesterday. For a while I had set up my computer so my hole cards were blocked and I couldn't see them until I actually HAD to know what I had. (The now famous K6 hand was actually during this period. I knew what I had after he went all in though, as I moved the hackey sack OUT of the way.) I was using my position well throughout the entire tournament. Got to the final table as the short stack. I noticed everybody was sitting on their ass trying to move up a payspot or two and played accordingly. I stole enough antes, and won one large enough pot to become chipleader with 7 players remaining. I then hovered in the top 2 the rest of the way, until we were 4 handed. I was in the SB(Small Blind) and I looked down at QQ. I made a standard 3x the BB(Big Blind) raise. The player in the BB sat there for a few seconds and then went all in for 50,000 more. I called pretty quickly and was left with 5,000. BB showed A 9, and of course flopped an Ace.
So next thing I knew I had 5K, and I finished in 4th place.
So I figured maybe I need to play more SNG's(Sit and Go's, 9 player tournaments) to get used to playing at a final table, and over the last 2 weeks I have played more SNG's than I probably had in the last 4 months combined. I'm winning a majority of the one's I'm playing in too.
So what the hell am I doing wrong? (That's rhetorical BTW. No need to start an argument.)
I'm sick and tired of 2nd place, 3rd place, and 4th place. I want first. I miss it.
No comments:
Post a Comment