How long till I win??

[COLDWOLF#1]

Been playing for 10 months...COLDWOLF#1on stars.Started on Partypoker 3 months ago as COLDWOLF888.Never won on either(other then the sitngoes)wasted the first 4 months just playin stupidly on the sngs..Read doyle,helmuth,and magazines for about 5 months..reading HOH 1&2 now.Found this great site a week ago.Been playin solid for a few months and never even sniffed a first..Made 3 final tables 3, thats it..the more I learn the more I apply,but at 2 or three tourneys a day....when should I change styles?I have seen worse players with at least a couple of wins...Hard to see where i should be at.Anybody played 10 months with no MTT wins?I just would hate to play a year and then tell the wife ..well... im... a well.. got a 3rd...lol.So im wondering..how do you rate yourselves? Im losing money.. about 200 or 300 a month,but i tell myself win one tourney thats $5 dollars or more of an entry fee and im ahead for the year instantly.i guess Im looking for some mystical scale that says you are here X...and you should be here XX.. for the time you have been playing.So do yall advise more patience...or get the dartboard out again? thanks!

[zoobird]

It could take a while. I've never won a 'real' MTT either...but I haven't lost any money because I'm mostly playing the $1 45 person MTTs, which are very +EV for me, and pretty low variance too. I'm not saying this is the fast way to get good, but it gives me all the time in the world to build a bankroll, improve my skills, and not piss off my wife by losing hundreds of dollars.

[Markusgc]

Oh - I thought there was gonna be an over/under to bet on.

Seriously, yes. I advise more patience. Try other tournies that you don't usually play too. Lower buy-ins, other sites, Value-Added (where the site sweetens the prize pool) games, etc. When you find one you feel comfy in keep at it a little bit. Then branch out a little at a time.

You keep reading, playing and posting tricky hands here you'll win one. But I can't give you a time frame. I guarantee you won't win one if you quit though.

[bambam16]

I've been playing for 2 years, still waiting on my first win. Finished 2nd way too much and probably finished in every other top 10 position at least once. Keep learning, you'll win one eventually.

[smoore]

2.5 yrs... I've won two micro 'stars tournaments, quite a few cashes, some fairly deep out of nearly a thousand of them. I've won one $22x180 out of 110 tries. MMmmmMmMMmMmm, losing.

[COLDWOLF#1]

thaks so far for yalls honesty...i need more responses to plesae

[yellowdoyle]

Coldwolf -

I have been playing for a about 24-30 months, and while I have won a large MTT, it was chopped 3 handed so it wasn't a 'true' win. I have won some 4.40/180 mans, but that is not too large a field. I also go "deeper" much more often now in large field tournaments, with low to medium buy-ins. I also like the 45 man SNG's on stars, they are relatively short and just playing standard TAG seems to be profitable.

But......NONE of this happened to me within the first year. In fact, it has all happened within the last 6 months or so. Why...? because I started taking it seriously. I don't play as often as I would like, but I don't force it if I don't have time. When i did try and "squeeze" a tournament in, I never played my best. I also started posting more on twoplustwo, and really *THINKING* about my bets, checks, folds (and WHY was I doing or not doing such and such a thing), every aspect of the game.

Another important thing - in my opening line, I said 24-30 months of poker. Why don't I know exactly? No spreadsheet....I can't imagine playing without one now. It keeps track of your progress/results, and forces you to be honest with yourself.

So to summarize: be patient, stick with it BUT keep in mind you probably won't start winning/going very deep until you really take it seriously.

(note - not to assume you don't do this now per se, but just pointing out that when i really focused and tried my best my results turned around.)

[IamCrack]

I think its really hard for a semi beginner to go deep into MTT's especially win one because there is so much you need to know but with more practice comes better results...I havent won a really big one but i got 2nd twice so I started playing more HU sngs to get over that hump...I also think that playing in one table sngs will help once you start making it to the final table all the chip stacks will vary...Good luck

[locutus2002]

play small fields with < 40, you'll win one in a week.

[doubLe a tom]

Getting over that hump and to the next level is always a challenge. Reading books is always a good idea and great learning tool (HOH 1/2 pwn) but the best thing for your game is practice. I suggest reading up on SNG strategy and learning to beat those before moving on to MTTs. By playing SNGs you can sustain a positive ROI easier because the variance is much lower. If you can learn to regularly beat SNGs your bankroll will be able to withstand the massive variance that comes with MTTs (especially in the stars low buy-ins with 1000+ players).

Also if you find you are cosistantly going deep in MTTs but always coming up short, you're probably playing too tight. I suggest you play a more loose-aggressive style, and do whatever it takes to build up a big stack. Playing this style, you will bust out of a lot of tournies early, but you will also be able to get a dominant stack much more often. Having a sizable stack is important for many reasons. First of all having a lot of chips prevents you from busting out of a tournament on a single hand... meaning you have more freedom to gamble, and if you take a bad beat you'll still be alive. You might make it "in the money" more often playing tight-aggressive, but you will surely have more top 3 finishes if you can play a solid loose-aggressive style, and thats where the money is.

Also, you might want to try playing on a site that has smaller tournies (IE: Bodog, PokerRoom). They dont have near the volume of Stars tournies so the variance is quite a bit lower.

Good luck,
Tom