Training...

[cdavi]

Here me out then please, all feedback good or bad is welcomed.

Last night I came 16th in a tourney I was sure I was going to final table when my KK lost to AK and QQ (both hit a flush...) AIPF. I'm not concerned about that hand, but I'm concerned about my end game and how I got to that point.

When I'm playing poker, my mind runs a mile a minute and not always thinking about the right things. I sometimes get caught up in the suckouts and bad plays being rewarded and don't think of the ways to get value from the bad players and I know that I am missing opportunities to chip up at the most opportune times. I tend to become an ABC player who makes the odd move in the late stages of tournaments. The problem is, my odd moves are normally transparent and get picked off more than not. When I go card dead, I get short stacked. The other thing about value is, I miss opportunities to get value from everyone at the table. For example, if there's one bad player at the table, I focus on him and miss times where other people make mistakes. I do not like this and find that I'm coming in the second last table time and time again. I find this frustrating and pointless. To spend hours on end and walk away with a few hundred when I could have done the same playing an hour and a half in a 45 man, and I could have played 10 of them...

What I'm trying to get at is what do you suggest to put you over the edge in end game strategy. I have read "Winning Online Poker Tournaments One Hand at a Time" and thought it was amazing. Volume 2 is supposed to be out but I haven't heard if they are even making it. If you don't know, Volume 1 gets you to the bubble, Volume 2 is supposed to get you to the Final Table. If I knew it was out soon, I'd be patient but patience is a virtue I don't always have.

Question to the ones who were at this stage months or years ago...what put you over the edge?

I belonged to PokerVT for a few months when it opened but I find it hard to justify putting in that much money a month (let alone the redonkulous set up fees they don't tell you about until you are ready to sign up) and it's mainly cash game related. I picked up some things from it, but I also find it hard to watch these beasts play perfect poker because I know what they are going to say and wonder why I'm not just doing it myself. I get in the same situation, then instead of thinking it through, I do something stupid and make a mistake.

I would love to ghost somebody or have them ghost me but another tidbit about me is I'm cheap . I know it costs money to get good help and as I said, I can make the right choices when I'm watching. When I'm playing though, that AQ or AJ looks so good after hours of q2's and 24's and not playing a hand, I don't notice it's the other tight player who reraised and end up "getting cold decked".

I know I need to work on some aspects of my game so I'm looking for help/suggestions/comments. What helped you? If you've railed me, what do you think would help me? I like to think I'm a really good player, but my problem is I don't have the time to do 20 MTT's a day and hope to FT in one of them to have a huge profit. I normally can do 1 or 2 every 2 or 3 sessions I play so it's frustrating to be running well just to screw it up because you ignored the signs.

I'm just rambling now...help if you can

[pegboy1]

Variance? At least I've been told it a million times. You've got to run great to beat 1600 people. I've been watching alot of great players make super deep runs as of late. The only difference between them and you is that you've been running into coolers late. Even the very best players need to get lucky to take one of these big MTTs down. I know because I've seen it a million times (many anyway). I've yet to see a great player get to a final table who hasn't got a least one or two or three lucky breaks. By that I mean got in way behind, caught a miracle river card, maybe a runner runner flush, etc. In ALL cases ive watched, something like that has happened. Keep plugging along and youre lucky streak will hit you at the perfect time. Then BANG!! FT!! Just a matter of time before you're KK makes a king set over you're opponents AA.....lol!!! It will happen!!! And its gonna be at the perfect time!! Like the bad luck that kennl pushed his A7 into AK, just a few hands earlier someone pushed they're A10 into his AK. A little luck is all you need.

[occams raisor]

I've had similar problems in the past and still have them when I'm on my c-game. One thing that helped me not focus on the terrible players getting rewarded or suckouts was increasing my volume. When I finally started to grind out 40-50 90 mans/day I started to get better results.

I had taken a week off at the beginning of October and since then I haven't had a chance to put in my usual 40-50 game sessions. I've started tilting again, which I hadn't done since the middle of July. Every lost flip, 70-30 or bad play/player gets me riled up and it's all I focus on. After I finish my games I keep thinking about the bad plays or beats (which are really standard stuff when you put in volume) and I begin telling myself I can't catch a break.

The other thing that helped me was Elements of Poker, I think I mention it in every post I make. Very good to help with the mental side of the game that we all struggle with to some degree.

Having someone ghost you could work because you won't want to look bad when someone is watching. Hope this helps one way or another.

[Vestvik7]

What you guys think about working out for the sence of having better pace of focus in tournaments?

[Houdini9]

Accept that when you get that deep you (final 2 or 3 tables) you simply cannot play online poker (due the huge blind structure/stack sizes) without stealing from the weak stacks 1 or 2 times per revolution and winning your races. You really just have to accept that it takes several hours (generally about 4 to 5 hours to get to this point where you are in position to win your race for all your chips and get set to hit the final table running.

Win your races - and you will see more final tables.

Good Luck

Jeff