MTT January mistakes: Post your 3 biggest ones.

[etojim]

(BTW, these don't include the trips to the limit/cash games, BJ table or PWI*)

1. Catching "Fancy Poker Syndrome", trying to make unnecessary plays, bluffs, esp. as big stack.

2. Not laying down hands when it looks like you’re beat (TPTK with 3 to flush/straight on board)

3. Not playing seemingly marginal hands or calling bets, despite appropriate odds (esp. all-in's from short stacks that won't cripple you). This situation occurs most often late in tourneys due to large blinds.

Sloutions:
1. After you attain a big stack, slow down a bit and just play good, solid poker.

2. Don't fall in love with a hand when all the evidence tells you beaten, which is a tough thing to do sometimes. Sometimes requires just as much testosterone to lay down a hand as it does to make a tough call.

3. Be constantly aware of pot odds/implied odds and the relationship to your hand, before automatically folding seemingly marginal hands in position pre-flop or hands that may not be best post-flop, but could improve to best if they hit.


* Playing While Intoxicated

[Art Vandelay]

1) Not paying enough attention at the table. This leads to making moves against the wrong type of player.

2) Not giving up on a hand when I meet resistance and it becomes clear I am behind. Too many turn and river bets because I'm stubborn and damn it I will chase that calling station off his 44 hand on a K T 8 5 2 board. Closely related to #1 I suppose

3) Not having enough time. Stupid work, girlfriend, social life. I really need to devote more time to poker, both cash games and MTTs but particularly MTT.

[NorthernGuy]

1 - Not paying enough attention to opponents / playing too many tourneys at once. Especially since I only have one monitor hooked up right now and get overlap.

2 - Playing after having too much beer!

3 - Falling asleep during five minute break because I play too many late tournaments after working all day, and still have to get up early. Sometimes waking up to at least find out I made the money!

Solutions

1 - Play four tournaments max, at least until I pull out the second monitor again.

2 - I know what the solution is, but it's fun!!!

3 - Stop starting tournaments after 8:30pm EST on weekdays.

[silversurfer]

Great thread.

1. Playing when upset/agitated/anxious and therefore being impatient/suffering from FPS/playing like an 8-year old Ritalin user suffering from withdrawal.

2. Not putting people on hands and just playing off of general reads/the strength of my cards.

3. Not studying enough afterwards.

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1. I struggle with this one. Part of the answer is for me to play more live tourneys; for some reason, my focus is nearly absolute, and I make far more intelligent decisions as opposed to getting bored and saying "the hell with it, let's gamble!" Part of this will be solved by staying away from nicotene and quitting smoking entirely (evil drug, withdrawal is a huge distraction). It's been almost two weeks, woo woo! Finally, I need to recognize when I am in one of these spastic moods and....slap myself to focus or something. Exercise is a big help as well to burn off the energy.
The early rounds of tournies bore the living hell out of me - I play much better when the blinds are actually worth stealing and need to be more patient so that I can make it to the "fun" stages. [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

2. Just gotta be more disciplined and do this. Now that I have paid off all of my debts and can actually devote some serious time to poker again, I need to take my time during tournies instead of saying "ahh, I put $100 in my Stars account for the weekend, if I blow it, who cares".

3. Same thing - discipline. Have to keep away from living and breathing poker for weeks at a time to the point where I get utterly burned out and can't even pick up a book.