MTT January mistakes: Post your 3 biggest ones.

[dmk]

1. Not trusting my reads

2. Not giving opponents credit for a decent hand

3. Not being patient enough when i get around 5-15BB. I force my action too often. I actually took the time in last nights 10r to make sure I avoided this and I made it a lot farther than I normally would have. Hopefully I can continue to make better decisions.

3.5. Not being observant (i.e. playing 5 mtts, browsing 2+2, playing backgammon, talking on IM, and attending to the baby at the same time)

[Tom Bayes]

1. Overplaying AQ like a donkey in the $500 NL tourney I played at the Gold Strike in Tunica during the World Poker Open. It was fairly early, I had lost about half my starting stack making a couple of tough (but correct) laydowns. Guy min-raises in EP, I decide he's weak and make an overbet all-in push. He has KK, IGHN.
2. Playing too many NLHE tournaments and not enough of the goofy PL Draw events at B2B (that I'm good at) or limit tournaments (which I'm generally better at).
3. Playing too many cheap MTTs in general. I should play fewer MTTs and more SNGs.

[Solitare]

1. Trying to steal blinds too much. While in the midst of a big cashless streak I was reviewing my PokerTracker stats and discovered I was trying to steal the blinds over 45% of the time. Much more than I think is wise and much more than the 33% average I had over the previous three months. Leak found and plugged.

2. Not making the big laydown. I continue to cost myself ITMs and FTs by falling in love with hands that look big but are not near the nuts and not folding when I'm beating very few hands the raiser could have.

3. Weak big stack play. Too often when I get a big stack I blow it. When I get a big stack I start playing some hands I shouldn't, thinking I have the cushion to LAG it up a bit. I forget about the guideline to stay away from other big stacks and attack the middle stacks. I get caught up in the rush that got me the big stack and think I'm unbeatable. I generally abbandon the TAG play that got me the big stack in the first place.

Solutions:

1. This one is solved already. But the lesson is too continue to use the available tools to analyze my game and plug leaks.

2. Take the time to think. Figure out which hands the villain could have and what your chances are against them compared to the pot odds. Do the hand category analysis HOH and Gordon't LGB talk about. Don't get defeatist, a fold is not the end of the world. Recongnize that even if a fold leaves me with only 8BB, that I know I'm a good small stack player and that I can come back.

3. Play some NL cash games. When I've done this I know I've improved my big stack thinking. Stay within my game, I'm a TAG not a LAG. Despite spending the whole tournament watching bigger stacks LAG it up, don't automatically join the fun yourself.

[Exitonly]

Problems
1) talking to the girlfriend while i play. Oh man is this bad news.
2) not paying attention to my table.
3) not having a routine. - will explain more in solution -

Solutions
1) talking with the girlfriend makes me pay 0 attention to my tables, and i play like complete trash. Next time, i either postpone the conversation, or i get someone to play for me while i talk.

2)Just using pokertracker/HUD will fix this, and believe it or not, i've been too lazy to just open the programs. Gonna be good about it now.

3) No more waking up at 4:30pm and going straight to the computer. I gotta start waking up at a normal time, and getting a normal startt to my day. Eating breakfast, maybe take a walk, and then starrt playing. I'm so much more succesful on the days i do this. and 1000000x happier.

[Spee]

Just wrote one in your other thread:

1) Winning a seat in the satellite for the UB Sunday nighter, and then not being fully committed to playing strong and hard, due to time zone differences and work commitments.

Solution:
Don't play unless you are 100% committed to play, mind body and soul.

Conclusion:
More than anything, MTTs are about commitment to the tourney itself, but also to one's commitment to oneself. If you ain't committed, then don't do it.

Here are two more:

2) Forgetting what I was doing against totally new competition. Played in a UB satellite for the upcoming pro tourney at the Aviation Club in Paris. Only one seat was available. So no guarantees, but I was in mid pack with 11 left until I lost concentration and screwed up. I was the lone Yank in a mini-tournament of all French players.

All of the players with one exception, played BY THE BOOK!! If you had read most of the current poker literature and recognized that they were playing in those published styles, then the adjustments were easy.

Solution:
I recognized this early on and adjusted accordingly with good results. Late in the tourney when the chip leader started to pull away a bit, I started to get a bit more aggressive. This was the wrong move, because aggressive play will not push off predictable players when they are on a hand. I played really solid for about 150 hands, but lost sight of this fact on 1 hand, and it cost me a shot at the one seat that was available.

Conclusion: If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

3) Not folding top pair to an obvious flush draw that hits. It was so obvious, someone would have had to hit me upside the head to make it more obvious. But I called anyway and paid the price.

Solution:
Use good judgment to reach a decision. Trust your judgment and decision.

Conclusion: Work hard to develop your instincts and thought processes so that you can rely on them without question in crunch time.

[whiskeytown]

I had points where I did something stupid - I'd write it on an index card near my desk and I taped it to the front of the desk so I see it -

1. - No more A/rag when I'm still functional (10-20BB) - it is always dominated when I play it out of position and I'm never safe when I hit the flop - it's great for stealing blinds and 3-4xBB, but it's stop being my all-in semibluff

2. - overbetting and not letting my opponents bluff enough - I'm always aggro when I play right now - always betting or folding, not trapping or slowplaying, and it's costing me chip equity - when I get repopped to 100 when I have AA, my first instinct is to push, and maybe a smaller reraise will get a call heads up which will probably not be dangerous for me -

and for some reason, I thought when I made a monster (like a set) I should play it the same way - aggressive and almost overbetting lately.

I now vary my play with the monsters - check the turn or river if I think I'm gonna bet a bluff thrown at me - might as well - it'll probably be more then I'd bet anyways - that's as much as the guy wants to risk - well, I'll usually min-raise his bluff [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] - basically, I need to play in such a way as to induce bets into my monster, and I was trying to disguise my play, but if I do this only occasionally, I AM disguising it - so that's ok too - I tend to play AK the same way if I missed both the flop and got a free turn card [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

my previous mentality is I gotta play this aggressive and not give a tell in my betting patterns whether I missed or hit - and I'm doing that, but occasionally checking the misses and the monsters is nice variance too -

truth is, I'm scared to death of getting sucked out on and I need to overcome that to risk winning more chips -

3. - multitabling $20 SNGS - I had a point where I played 4 in a row and got 3 2nd's - that's unacceptable - I should have gotten at least one win and probably 2 - and because they were all started at the same time, I couldn't focus enough on one player - I can get away with it at the $10 level, but they're tougher HU at the $20 - and that's where I have to be the best -

so no more multitabling 4 SNG's unless they're $15 or less [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

RB

[Spee]

[ QUOTE ]

1. - No more A/rag when I'm still functional (10-20BB) - it is always dominated when I play it out of position and I'm never safe when I hit the flop


[/ QUOTE ]

Amen my brotha!!

[Marwan]

Great thread,

#1.) Not being attentive enough to my table.. Though I'd probably be a nervous wreck playing a live tourney, I know with almost certainty that i'd be a better player for the fact that there is nothing else to do at the table other then pay attention.. I'm at my computer, playing a tourney, going upstairs to get something to eat, posting on 2+2, talking on msn, browsing sports scores, etc etc..

#2.) Not paying attention to ICM and pay levels at FT's.. I have that 'play to win' mentality.. but sometimes I make absurd moves to steal a blind while I should just be playing a little more cautiously until the shorties get knocked out .. twice I was at a final table with really short stacks and I still forced the action and got knocked out.. I could have probably made an extra 1K this month by being a lil more patient.

#3.) Playing tired. Right now I'm at school, and usually play when I get home.. i think playing tired or with other things on my mind really hinder on my game, i'm just not all there mentally/physically and my mind wanders. Should probably reserve tournaments for the weekend and off-days to endure the long sessions and feel fresher.

[THEOSU]

1) Taking it personally when one player takes a couple pots in a row from me.

2) Taking it personally when one player consistently reraises me.

3) well, those are the two big ones. They're big enough for work on.

[JSchnett]

Problems
1. Getting Bored
2. Make too many "plays"
3. Getting frustrated, (playing too much or too little or not playing my best)

Solutions
1. I need to keep up a steady flow of SnGs or HU SnGs or cash games to keep my mind occupied and make more money.
2. I sometimes make plays when I really don't need to and It is very risky with little reward. I think playing more tables will also help with this problem. I also want to make more plays based off reads which I don't do as well anymore because I am lazy/bored now.
3. To stop from getting frustrated I will play more SnG and cash games to keep a more steady cash flow to help deal with the emotional varience of MTTs.

I had a really bad month and I need to start making changes.