Dodging Mines

[ImBetterDude]

So here's the skinny - The lady was gone for the last 4 days, and I decided to use this time to get back to my poker roots. I played a bunch of large field MTT's to get a good score, instead of the smaller SNG's that I usually elect to play. I narrowly avoided a heart attack.

Let me say that, at least at the $5-$25 levels, it is UNCANNY how many mines you have to dodge to final table. People at these lower levels find it impossible to lay their hands down and your KK has to dodge aces, your AK has to hit against J J, and so on and so forth. I've watched some of the FTOPS events this year, as well as the other larger tourneys on FTP, and players are so much more capable of folding their hands at those games then in the games I play in. It makes me wonder...would it be easier for a good player to succeed in an event with other good players? I'm thinking this is a silly question because the answer should be obvious...NO! Of course not. It's just incredibly frusterating to watch these donkey players gather chips while I play my game and lose eventually as a 70% favorite in an unlucky flip. I guess what it comes down to is amassing a bunch of chips early so that when you take a hit you can afford to.

But here's the truth, and I hate to say it. Scoring in a MTT takes a lot of luck, and no matter how much of an edge you have on the field, it's still going to take a bunch of luck. Phil goddamn Hellmuth could sit down and play a 400 runner MTT for $5 and he's going to final table less than 5% of the time. Let me just say I'm steaming from going deep but not deep enough about 3 times, and getting snapped by some donk sucking out (once) with AQ over my AK for a MOUNTAIN of chips preflop, or being on the loser end of a flip (twice). The two flips were absurd though, I had 10 10 and J J preflop, and got called by guys for all/most their chips with A J and K Q suited. Of course their hands prevailed.

I think I'm going to stick to the SNG's...the variance is a little less traumatic! All that being said, it's been a fun ride the last few days, and there's still nothing I enjoy more than sitting down to a large field MTT with 100+ BB's and playing some poker.

[maf66]

Maybe I'm missing the point, but surely this is the same for any tourney for any buy-in? You still have to get lucky, win your flips, avoid those 3-outers, etc.

Harrington said in one of his books something like "In order to win a tournament, you will have to come back from the dead at least once". I can't remember the exact wording, but he was basically saying there will be times you will need to get lucky yourself with your tournament life on the line.

Good MTT players will not win every tournament they enter, but it is the consistency and long term results that make their money and make them good. If you put a top-ranked MTTer in a 2000 man $5 MTT, he is not guaranteed to win it. He may go deep, and he will accumulate chips from exploiting weak players, but he will still need to avoid the mines that you talk about.

What I'm trying to say is, you can't expect to go deep in every tournament. But you will get days when you're winning those flips, and sucking out when your AQ beats AK. That's when you will get your big score, and that's when you go back to enjoying MTTs.

[leofric]

Its always dodging bullets/bombs/low flying aircraft that wins these things.

If you take a situation where you're a 70/30 favourite then obviously you'll win more than you lose but it becomes break even when you need to win 2 in a row and a big odds against to win 3 in a row.

I did manage to win a 450 runner $10 tournament a couple of months back but I haven't cashed since!