Get your money in great against people. Squeeze aggressively with big hands and win the flips. That's what everyone says you need to do if you want to go deep in a tournament. The problem is, you always have a chance to lose a 70-30, of course. And when you lose, it's often for your tournament life.

How many BBs do you need before you can tighten up a little bit and try to outplay people postflop instead of gambling (even as a favorite) preflop?

Also included below is a hand that just knocked me out and made me very salty; comprised of a lot of fishy players who were going All In every hand with junk, this time they actually had some things RELATIVELY decent.

All other tournament advice is welcome in this thread, and show me those bad beats that make you scream "ONLINE POKER IS RIGGED" to let off some steam with me.

NL Holdem $0+$0 (100.00BB)
UTG ($3547) [VPIP: 50% | PFR: 7.7% | AGG: 13.6% | Hands: 26]
UTG_1 ($382) [VPIP: 52.6% | PFR: 31.6% | AGG: 8.7% | Hands: 19]
MP ($4365) [VPIP: 21.4% | PFR: 21.4% | AGG: 0% | Hands: 14]
CO ($3792) [VPIP: 25.8% | PFR: 22.6% | AGG: 21.4% | Hands: 31]
HERO ($2734) [VPIP: 37.9% | PFR: 26.4% | AGG: 37% | Hands: 426]
SB ($1445) [VPIP: 3.4% | PFR: 3.4% | AGG: 0% | Hands: 29]
BB ($512) [VPIP: 59.3% | PFR: 3.8% | AGG: 10.7% | Hands: 28]

Dealt to Hero: A T

UTG Calls $100, UTG_1 Raises To $382 (allin), MP Raises To $4365 (allin), CO Folds, HERO Calls $2724 (allin), SB Folds, BB Calls $402 (allin), UTG Folds

Flop ($8173): J T 2

Turn ($8173): J T 2 5

River ($8173): J T 2 5 3

LOL that one hand history told me all I need to know. Fish gonna fish.

Thanks for your contribution, I'm sure any assessment based on one hand is a solid one.

Had my first deep run tonight!! 39th out of 1232 entrants, definite crazy ride. Definitely got lucky a few times, got sucked out on a few times, but all in all I don't think I made nearly as many mistakes as usual.

I still don't like the luck element because sometimes there's nothing you can do, but I think that's just poker right? I'm guessing with tournaments its a numbers game?

Heres the hand that busted me out.

Hand History driven straight to this forum with DriveHUD 2 Poker HUD and Database Software

NL Holdem $0+$0 (2000.00BB)
BB ($68343) [VPIP: 23.1% | PFR: 0% | AGG: 20% | Hands: 13]
UTG ($9876) [VPIP: 32.2% | PFR: 13.6% | AGG: 25.6% | Hands: 59]
UTG_1 ($8000) [VPIP: 12.5% | PFR: 12.5% | AGG: 14.3% | Hands: 42]
MP ($29655) [VPIP: 5.6% | PFR: 5.6% | AGG: 0% | Hands: 18]
CO ($42617) [VPIP: 44.4% | PFR: 16.7% | AGG: 38.9% | Flop Agg: 75% | Turn Agg: 25% | River Agg: 0% | 3Bet: 0% | 4Bet: 0% | Hands: 18]
HERO ($55917) [VPIP: 33.2% | PFR: 23.3% | AGG: 35.7% | Flop Agg: 45.1% | Turn Agg: 50% | River Agg: 47.4% | 3Bet: 11.2% | Fold to 3Bet: 45.5% | 4Bet: 42.9% | Hands: 624]
SB ($37290) [VPIP: 26.1% | PFR: 2.2% | AGG: 18.2% | Hands: 48]

Dealt to Hero: A T

UTG Folds, UTG_1 Folds, MP Folds, CO Raises To $4200, HERO Raises To $11200, SB Folds, BB Folds, CO Calls $7000

Hero SPR on Flop: [1.19 effective]
Flop ($26400): 5 A T
CO Checks, HERO Bets $30360 (Rem. Stack: $14357), CO Raises To $31417 (allin), HERO Calls $1057 (Rem. Stack: $13300)

Turn ($89234): 5 A T 9

River ($89234): 5 A T 9 J

I know it sucks, but what can you do? Gotta lose that money.

Yeah you should really get away from these non-tax paying BS. 0 +0 how you gonna pay taxes on that? How are you supposed to be a good taxpayer? Reconsider your life

For me it's about getting good practice in a tournament setting.

Thanks for the laugh

Post of the year IMO

I did it again! I just had another deep run! 12th out of 1683 entrants. I really wanted to make the final table, and was kinda bummed I didn't quite make it, but it's hard to be upset about a 12th place finish.

I wonder if I'm just getting lucky, or if I have what it takes to try some paid tournaments. I have to imagine people are going to try harder outside of a Freeroll.

Edit: What are some good ITM% and ROI%? How many Tournament BI should a healthy roll support?

I’ll give you the textbook answers then the real answers.

ITM 30%+ would be ideal. ROI, sky’s the limit but I would guess around 20-30% would be good. I would say your roll should be at least 100 buyins.

The real answers are ITM at least twice in a year makes fish feel good about themselves. ROI would be whatever their most recent cash was without consideration for total buyins. Bankroll is whatever they have leftover from each paycheck and whatever they can scrounge together from pawning their worldly possessions.

Good luck!

Try making your own tournaments and rig it

Nothing better than some incredibly helpful information bundled with the fallback for my ego when I inevitably go busto!

Appreciate the post Dr. Meh.

Now there's an idea! Can you get me in touch with Epic Poker League?

Or maybe I should just make an entire stable play the same online tournaments and collude with one another.

You played that like a total newbie. That was an easy preflop fold. 10 is not a great kicker AND the blinds were still small and you had plenty of chips. The best advice you can get will be DO NOT GO ALL IN unless the pot size justifies risking your tournament or you are so low you just have to make moves. You don't need to be going all in until late stages. Play smart, not stereotypical

There is no way I would make that call, not a change.

you are a huge fish, please stop complaining.

Your feed back is not useful, please stop trolling...lmao

You are absolutely right.

I had justified it in my head because the whole table kept jamming with QTo, A4o, K3s, and the like.

I have since learned it's better to use my edge postflop and avoid flipping unless I am < 20BB and it's a good spot to shove and take down uncontested.

I was letting off a little steam and soliciting advice, and have since received tons of helpful information.

What do you get out of it by posting something like this in my thread?

If you want to call me a fish at least make it constructive lol.

Freeroll are not much better than a play money tournament. Players have to feel some sting from losing buy in and get some rush from being itm to get thoughtful play.