Tournament #15

Starting cash $28.84

Tournament fees 11.00

Result loss – 11.00

Cash $ 17.84

Analysis-This was an annoyingly frustrating tournament. I played for about an hour and forty minutes before busting. It seemed like maniac after maniac after fish after whale came to my table. I could just never get into a big hand with any of them. All the other sane players at my table were getting paid off big, just not me. I had one descent shot to make a move and it cost me most of my stack. You’ll see that hand below. After this hand I went all in pre on the next hand with QT and lost.

My Best Hand

No best hand here just the worst

My worst hand

Pre-Flop Blinds were creeping upwards and I my chip count was only slightly higher than when I started. This has brought my M down to 16. I’m not yet desperate but I’m definitely feeling pressure to make a move. I pick up TT in the SB. MP min raises and I 3bet for two reasons. First with my TT vulnerable on a high flop I wouldn’t mind taking the hand down now. Second if my TT holds up I’m looking for a big win here so I'd like to build the pot now. MP calls.

Flop comes with 3 cards below 10, jackpot. I’m 99% sure I’m way ahead now. If he had a higher pair I think he would have made a bet that was more than a min raise pre or 4 bet my 3bet or both. Here I’m confident. I make a descent sized raise hoping for a call. He shoves. I’m surprised by this and go over my reasoning again. My thinking now is maybe he has A7 but most likely this is a bluff. His stats are pretty tight so playing a 68 for the straight is unlikely. He could have just flopped a set but if he did he probably would have tried to milk it for more rather than shut the hand down. Two diamonds are possible for the semi-bluff but with all his chips from a tight player I’m not so sure about that. I still think I’m way ahead and I call. He shows the KJ of diamonds for the 4 flush with two over cards. He hits his diamond on the turn which devastates my chip count.

Tournament #16

Starting cash $17.84

Tournament fees 11.00

Result loss – 11.00

Cash $ 6.84

Analysis-Another very frustrating tournament. This one has seriously damaged what is left of my measly original $50. I busted out fairly early in this one as well. Here is the only hand where a significant amount of my chips moved.

My Best Hand

No best hand here just the worst (I’m getting sick and tired of not having good hands to post)

My worst hand

Pre-Flop UTG I pick up AJo. I would say I fold about half of these UTG. I raise the other half with the intention of laying down to a 3bet. In this situation the tournament has been going on for about 45 mins and I have lost about 20% of my original stack so I’m looking to play these type of hands and make something happen. I get called by EP and SB. SB is a good player who I’ve played against quite a bit, this is my first time paying EP a complete maniac. EP raises, calls, shoves, splashes, lots of times with trash.

Flop- Good flop for me as I hit TPTK. SB checks I raise half the pot, EP calls, SB folds.

Turn- Turn is a 9 pairing the middle card on the board. Still thinking I’m ahead I bet 2/3 of the pot which is about half my stack. EP puts me all in. At this point I’m pot committed and this maniac may have been playing 62 this way for all I know. There is however a sinking feeling in my stomach he has a 9. I call. He shows the 9. It holds up.

The main problem I see from your "worst hands" is your constant need to get the money in the middle without a real hand or really bad drawing hands.

And stop polarizing your opponents range so narrow. Some of your analysis literally makes no sense "I don’t see how he can have a K or a 6 here and have limp called pre" 3 players checked the flop, you don't think its possible ONE of them could have limp called with 67, 65, 64 or even K10, K9, K8 etc. You get where I am going with this. A lot of your hands that you posted have similar patterns, which is why you keep losing money when you could have easily just lost the minimum or any at all.

Try slowing down and thinking about your reasoning for making a decision and ask yourself if this REALLY makes sense. If you don't you're going to keep losing and busting out super early. GL

Tournament #17

Starting cash $6.84

Tournament fees 2.20

Result loss – 2.20

Cash $ 3.64

Analysis-Another loss. I don’t even want to count how many in a row this is now. These last few have been very similar. No good spots to make moves early then I force it a bit later on and end up getting stacked. My original $50 is on its last legs.

My Best Hand

No best hand here just the worst (Once again, I’m getting sick and tired of not having good hands to post)

My worst hand

Pre-Flop EP I pick up AKo UTG limps and I raise to three BB’s. MP, a maniac 3 bets me and the BB, another maniac calls. Knowing both of these idiots can’t play poker to save their lives I figure this is as good a time as any to make my move. I shove and get two quick calls. They turned over pocket 4’s and pocket 5’s. Neither of these hands surprises me in the least. Unfortunately, I can’t pair my Ace or King and I’m out.

I dont get it, it is your worst hand because you lost?
You should be less result oriented, its wp with 50bb if you knew they were maniacs.

again: you are playing way over your bankroll so basically you are facing ppl that in general play much more consistent than you (eventhough u will tell yourself that you seem to be better than them but its just not true you play quite bad) and can afford to loose some flipaments.
you will go busto and busto and busto all day long if you dont practice proper BR and start playing lower donkaments (whcih should have more population since more ppl can afford to enter it)

unsubbing now everytime i check latest post i could just ragequit.
gl with ur life but ur pokerlife wont get anywhere like this

17 tournaments in and clearly things aren’t going the way I’d hoped. My cash went down to 3.64. I cashed in some rake back I had available and that brought my roll up to just under 10.00. At this point I’m going to share my overall analysis of the job I’ve done so far. As we all know variance and bad beats can ruin a good tournament. For that reason I’ve gone over the hands I’ve played, not just the ones I posted but all of them. I’ve given myself one of three possible grades on each tournament.

1. Good- For tournaments I’ve played well in

2. Average-For tournaments I could have done better

3. Bad-For tournaments I definitely did not play to the best of my ability

Based on the fact that I’ve posted the worst of the worst hands many of you may think the grades are a bit generous. My goal with the grading was to not be as interested in the tournament results and to not be overly negative about one bad hand in a tournament. Here are my scores. I attempted to remain as objective as possible.

Good tournament #’s 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 11, 13 total-7

Average tournament #’s 4, 9, 10, 12, 15, 17 total-6

Bad tournament #’s 1,7, 14 ,16 total-4

My impression of these numbers is they could be worse but I’m nowhere near satisfied. I want to be playing good poker the overwhelming majority of the time. Right now I’m going over what I feel are the three biggest weaknesses in my game.

1. Steal and vs. the steal. This is the weakness that concerns me the least. I’m going to spend some time ripping apart the books I have (and I have a lot of them) looking to make myself more comfortable in this area of the game. I’m still looking for suggestions on where to look for this if you guys have any.

2. Consistency- Everyone has been getting on my case to increase volume in order to reduce variance. I agree that increasing volume would reduce variance. That comes at a cost however. I had been running about 2-4 tournaments a day. If I ran deep into a tournament I would be playing for 5 hours at a time. There were days where I was easily playing for 10 hours. I’m nowhere near as good a player after 9+ hours then I am when I first start. If anything I need to reduce the amount of time that I’m playing.

3. Bankroll management-I knew starting this project I was severely under rolled. My hope was to hit a big win early and then I would be adequately rolled. The problems with this are obviously that I have not hit a big win yet, and I’m not sure the big win on the smaller tournaments would be adequate anyways. The top prize for the two dollar tournament is approx. 50; 3 dollar approx. 68; 5 dollar approx. 125; and 10 dollar approx. 250. Now I would have no problem reloading but I don’t really see the point when I’m not playing my best and I don’t particularly want to continue playing in the smaller time consuming tournaments.

I’ll make a post in the next few days about how I plan on proceeding but I’d like to hear your thoughts first.

Jim, how about playing SNG's to (re)build your bankroll? Usually over in just a couple of hours max. That would help you putting more volume in.

And yes, I do think you need more volume. Playing so few tourneys not only makes variance a pain. It also tends to make you play more timid because each single tourney has too much relevance to you. That just doesn't work in small-stakes online tourneys where your opponents are very willing to gamble it up.

^ this

GL anyways

My advice: go find a job. You are a bad player and you will not become a pro. Just play poker because you like this game and not because you are thinking you can win some 'easy' money.

Thanks for the advice. Over the past week I've played a ton of SNG's. I've played at multiple stakes and in multiple formats. Right now my roll is back up to a little over 20.00 after running bad at some of the higher stakes. At one point from just sng's I had it up to almost 60. I'm likely going to stick with the low level don sng's until I build my roll back up. From there I have not decided how I will proceed so any further advice you have on that subject would be appreciated. Higher level don sng's are out because I'm certain the regulars who infest those tournaments are playing at least a cooperation game with each other if not as teammates outright.

Thanks for the advice. In the future advice on how to become a better player or on specific hands would be more appreciated than telling me to get a job. I'll make that decision when the time is appropriate but as of now its premature.

You should be realistic and becoming a pro is far from what you can achieve. So unless you have don't need a job for the money I would look for a job if I were you.

Anyway, here is some of my advice on the hands. Most things might already have been said, most of these hands has been played terrible.

Dont limp, bet flop, dont raise river.

Don't overshove turn.

Just flat flop

Fold to reraise on the flop. Dont call river.

Dont limp, fold vs the raise.

That flop reraise is just burning money on fire. You're analysis is also bad. Why would you assume he will 3bet ALL Ax pre....

Minraising is the only good thing about this hand. Limping is NOT ok. Don't lead the flop.

I don't think I need to say anything here.

Check flop.

Dont raise turn.


And please don't say this are you're only bad hands or something. I am pretty sure you have a lot of other hands you have misplayed.

In genral your handreading abilities are terrible and you make some pretty bad assumptions. For instance in the last hand you say you don't think he will limp/call 22, but you do the same with 44 in an other hand... Also you reasons for betting or raising (a particular sizing) don't make much sense in some hands.

Patje thanks for the comments. I appreciate you bringing this thread back to a debate on the hands. It is why I started it.

Remember reality is what you make of it.

Hand by hand

A7o

You said dont limp dont raise river. I couldnt agree more. Two huge screw ups. I dont like betting the flop there with tpnk. It's not making the FD fold, its not making any ace fold. It might not make a K fold. I definetely cant double barrel unless a 7 comes out on the turn and I would just be begging to get bluffed out on the last two streets.


54s

I'm not sure the hand would have ended differently if I didn't over shove the turn. But I do think you are right I should have gone with a more reasonable Pot sized bet. I'm sure at some point he would have shoved and I would have called anyways.

JJ

You are not the first person on this thread to say that and I disagree. I made a post about it I'll repost it below.

K7s

You said fold to reraise on the flop, dont call the river. Yes that pretty much covers it, screwed up bad there.

44

I think we can agree limping here is a close play either way. With a huge stack I can afford to speculate on hitting the set. Vs the raise I probably should have folded but I did think at the time both players would stay in the hand and they were loose enough to pay me off if I hit the set.

J8s

I assumed he would 3bet any Ax because he had 3bet my last two steal attempts. With the way the table was going my perception was he was getting frustrated with me stealing so often. My steal game both pre and post flop are terrible and need work. If you know of any good literature on the subject please post where I can find it. The flop reraise was terrible I agree.

88

I dont like the minraise. If he has a hand he is going to come over the top with me showing weakness. A descent size raise would have been ok to accurately convey the strength of my hand. Why wouldn't you want to limp here? I think it would be ok if I were just trying to set mine or if I were prepared to shove and flip for stacks if he raises me pre.

TT

You said check the flop. You are most likely correct but I think we would have gone through the same sequence on the turn if I had.

ATs

Comparing my 44 limp call and his 22 limp call isnt really the same thing. I had a huge chip stack with the 44 and could afford to speculate. Now had I taken my time and looked at his HUD stats I would have realized he was a very loose player capable of calling with the hands I mentioned. So you are right my raise on the turn was terrible.

Look all hands can be played better. Phil Ivey I'm sure has many hands he misplayed. I post the worst of the worst so I can learn from it. As far as the hands I haven't posted are concerned there have certainly been no misplays that were nearly as bad as these. On a lot of hands I have done a lot of things right becuase I've cashed in a few and built large stacks in many others. I've tried to be as objective as possible in my analysis.

JJ hand

But this is probably where youre thinking is wrong. I think youre way too results oriented. I wont go back and tell you where your logic and plays were wrong cuz its already been pointed out, but I am sure that there are other hands that you probably misplayed, but won, therefore don't think the hands were "bad" but in reality they are. Go read some other threads here, or in the low stakes threads. People constantly post hands that they think were marginal or misplayed, even when they won. Its the only sure way to plug leaks.

Oh and for what its worth...I agree with anyone who says you should look for a job. not trying to be a buzz kill but it definitely doesn't look like you have what it takes to be a pro...sorry to be honest

I think playing the SNG has certainly helped me become less results oriented as I am not as underrolled for them as I am the MTT's. I also play much more volume so I'm not worried if I go bust in a single tourney. They are definetely the way to grind out a roll. The problem with them is once I have a working roll the SNG's get a lot tougher at the higher stakes and there are not enough of them. So for now I'll continue working on my roll and figure out how to turn that into an income when I get there.

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on me having what it takes to be a pro. Thanks for the comments.

You also have a bad attitude, you seem to be very stubborn and I feel I am wasting my time here since I don't think you will learn much from it.

About the JJ...

First your assumptions are not correct, so any conclusion you make from them is also incorrect.

Even if they are correct you shouldn't be folding to a turnbet if there is a K or Q. You need to win 25% and when there is a K or a Q you will have about 50% when his only hands are AQ and AK.

My two cents about having what it takes to become a pro...

Each and every player has a maximum skill level that can be achieved. Whether or not your maximum is enough to make a living on a continual basis is impossible to say up front. Only time will tell.

I very much agree that it's up to you to evaluate whether or not to try to become a pro. Your current skill level is completely irrelevant for making that decision. The three things that are import are:
1. Your ability to learn - Do you have the intelligence needed? Stamina? Concentration skills?
2. Your willingness to learn - Are you prepared to doubt yourself? Critically listen to advice?
3. Time and money - Can you afford losing time and money while learning?

^this!

this post should definitely be worth more than 2 cents for OP

Ugh this is back again?

I think OP's reluctance to accept the received wisdom of people who've played the game for years & general approach don't stand him in good stead for the future.

Also hoping to become pro playing on US sites with very small player pools is very optimistic even for a very good player (especially in MTTs).