Hi MTT Community,

Was wondering if anyone else ever had this problem.

My end game sucks majorly. I'm defining endgame as playing from 50 or 60 players down in large field tournaments. I make it deep in large fields MTTs as much qw most regulars, but I punt my stack off way too often. I'd say at least 1 in 3 times I completely donk off, 1 in 3 times I donk off about half my chips, and the only play well in about 1/3rd of my end game opportunities.

Obviously this is a horrible business model for an MTT player. I believe my issues are more psychological than fundamental (i.e I know how to play well late, I just fail to execute it) I think i stress myself out sometimes over the prize money, and getting over the hump.

Has anyone else had this problem? What did you do to overcome it?

As an incentive, I'm offering $200 to the guy that can give me the tip that helps me get over my psychological barrier. Payable on my next first 4 figure score. And additional $1000 if I ever start winning regualarly.

My Screen names are, Savant111 on Tilt and Frankboy111 on Stars if you want to look me up.

Some other info about me:

I work full time and only consider poker a hobby. I don't necessarily worry too much about bankroll management the way you guys do, but I play well within my life means.

I currently subscribe to Pokerpwnage, and Card Runners

I play between 1 and 6 tables depending on mood.

I play mostly $26 tourneys, but also like to take occasional shots.

I've been studying the game and playing for about 6 years. I've slowly but surely gotten better. I consider myself to be an excellent hand reader. I study and am constantly refining all aspects of my game, and believe when I'm playing well that I'm pretty good for a non-professional.

Thank you for any advice.

I suck at that too, I busted at least 4 times top 20, and only 1 final table (2nd place tho), I'm gonna read the advices you get as soon as they come

You said you think it's psychological. Maybe play some smaller fields, like the $20/180s (not turbos). This will get you to the final 2 tables more often so you can practice and build confidence.

Failing that just try luckboxing something.

its all about focus. You gotta be clutch when you get deep man. Watching videos is a good way to get in the head of some awsome players and see what thought process you should have. You should also snap watch mlagoo vids on cardrunners.

Well i had this problem too for a long time even tho i have good results and a lot of final tables / 1st plc finishes in big field mtts.
everytime when i was going on a heater and had 2-1 to 3-1 chip lead over second with 30-20 left. i manged to blow it all in a few hnds late.
one of the major problem i had is how to deal with being moved to a table with at least 3 people deep stacked.
you know, normaly i pick on the shorter stacks but with a big stack behind i often ran my isolation into KK AA.
for example i have QQ in MP, UTG 1 is 30bb short and pushes all in, i shove 80bb while BB shoves with 70BB. obv i make the call just to find me in bad shape against BBs KK AA.
this leaves me with 10BB and i obv shove the next best AX into 99 TT JJ.
this happened to me in every second mtt i go deep in.

then i learned to avoid this crap you have to be very aware of chip management and RISK management late in tourneys.
while in the middle stages all that matters is to double up to get a confortable stack and you obv have to take big risks and this is all good, you have to know that in later stages your stack size is all that matters to get to the final table and make a good score or not.
i learned that if youre lets say 80 bb deep and you find yourself in described situation with QQ its better to just call the 30bb shove and fold to a shove that can actually hurt your stack and tourney life.
also important is of course how good your read is on the players at your table in this situation.
utg obv needs to double up and has a marginal hand most of the time.
but if BB seems solid and shoves, i would only call with KK AA in that spot. FK them queens. you can steal the blinds and antes 2 times after and youll have your stack back in controll even after folding that 30bb pot before.
also avoid to overplay AK AQ TT JJ in late stages.
only CALL these hands against small stacks and bet/shove these hands if youre at least middle or late position and there was no raise by a big stack before.
its been said a thousand times before and i can only recommend it to you;
patiens and discipline is the most important factor late.
let the agressive players bust each other and climb up the ladder in price money wich also is a psycological factor and gets me more confortable knowing i have 5x my buy in guaranteed already and i dont have to stress nothing.
with so many antes and blinds out all you really need is just one premium hand to hold up late and youre guaranteed a top 3 finish.
i often used to overvalue the chip lead aspect, you know..
"if i call this guys shove with a even stack and win with my JJ i will have the chiplead and will win the tournament" ..
thats just not true and for me personal the risk management comes to play in this situation more importanat then everything.
even if i have QQ and the odds / ev normally would be standart, i just dont have to call his shove because im not at middle stage anymore, im running for the FT and this call would end my tourney or cryple my stack.
and 85% of the time does (not to mention if theres another player in the pot, this would reduce my winning chances a lot more and i think the fold even easyer).

i dont know if this will help you but when i realized that i get to nervous on the run for the FT i sometimes sit out in a few other games and concentrate more on the mtt im deep in. this makes standart plays not so standart anymore and i can focus on the other players as well and most important get a feel for the table.
so i hope i wrote my thoughts understandable (since im not so good in english) and maybe there is something that gives you a inspiration on your later stages mtt game.
BTW: the whole dynamic changes when youre on the FT....obv

lol just busted my AA (SB) against CL s KK (BTN) AI PF on a ATJQ9 board with 17 left out of 832
GG me

this

sng mtts are the best way to sharpen your end game!
you should play a few beside your normal mtt session very day.

I actually close pretty well in 45s, 90's , and 180's it the big ones w the big prizes that I seem to choke in.

I like mlagoo vids too. Maybe I'll rewatch. I know he's got a few end game vids too.

Thanks for such a thoughtful post bro. I think risk management specifically is one of my biggest problems late in MTT's.

Sux about the 18th, gl next time

When it's 4am and you're down to your last tourney and very deep in it, it's tough not to get overly focused on, and stressed out about, every decision in that tourney.

If you're used to multi-tabling, maybe open up a sng or 2 just to take the pressure off of that ONE important table with so much money riding on it. It helps me keep a little perspective that there are other tourneys going on always, and that it's not life or death to ship this one. If I put too much pressure on the one tourney, it's really hard to take those gambly spots that you KNOW you have to take if you want to win the whole thing.

I never ever look at the prize pool, I will obviously have some idea in my head after knowing the buy in & field size etc but when it comes down to it ill treat it like a STT.

I do have the occasional blow up too but not fixing on the money helped me so much. Recently I cashed for almost 5k, at the FT I just assumed I was gonna make around 1k and never considered it further.

AND thats why you lose money at poker

def. a necessary troll imo

Thanks for the advice, but I'm not sure this will work well for me. I'm not as good at multi-tabling as most of you guys are. What I usually do is keep about 4 tourneys running, until I get a stack somewhere and focus on that one, while auto-piloting the others. I also stop loading up the new ones at that point.

congrats on the score. I tried this before, but I like knowing when exactly the bubble situations (I'm using the term "bubble" very loosely here) are because I like to identify players I can steal from at the table.

Also guys, list your Stars and Tilt screen names if your comfortable so I know who to ship the loot to if I turn this around.

Also, something I'm not sure if I mentioned in my OP, is that I finish pretty strong once I make the final table. It really playing from 90 down to 10 that I'm on high donk alert

Really appreciate the feedback.

If anyone is interested in seeing the train wreck live I'm 12/270 (3k players started) right now in the Stars 5.50 2r 1a that started at 4:35 est. tourney # 317010677

Frankboy111

66/91 and I just kind of monkeyed off 44k. I think i'm going to start posting hands where i spew so you guys can see how I do it.

Wound up finishing 57th:

Here are some thoughts:

1) My spazz outs are most likely when my stack has reached 6 figures

2) It usually tends to be me making a play at someone

3) It happens most often when I'm at a new table and my reads aren't that solid. I think I'm making plays at guys without enough info

When deep in an Mtt and moved to a new table, how many hands do you need before your comfortable making plays on people? I think too often at a new table im making important decisions based on stack sizes within the first two orbits. When I can just wait 3 or 4 orbits and have a little more reliable hand sample.

4) Also, playing w 12-20bb game is probably the weakest part of my gam. I'm not horribe, but it's the only time I find myself unsure of what the best the play is.

Hopefully these details help a bit.

I'm done with this thread

Typically when people are deep in tournaments they relate their failures to psychological issues when in fact usually the problem is you have more chips and are usually more bbs deep later in a tournament. Perhaps you need to work on your deeper BB play (in non turbos of course). Early in tournaments you have a lot of bbs but the correct strategy is very nitty. In the middle, you're usually fairly short <30bbs and have to shove correctly. Towards the end depending on the structure, you find yourself ~50bbs deep a lot. Focus on your 50bb play and aggro deep play while still keeping your bluffs in line.