[mlagoo]

the best thing for you in this situation is peer review. the capacity to critically (and objectively) evaluate your own play is pretty rare, so you really need someone on the outside who can be like "i really think you missed a spot here" or "i think this is spew."

i had a two month stretch this past spring where i basically just lost money in MTTs, playing decent (but not deeb-like) volume. the best thing for me at that time was to constantly be talking to other people who i knew were very good at this game, and be like "what can i be doing differently? how can i get better?"

but yeah man, MTTs are a real mindfuck. the variance is insane, probably worse than any of us successful players can appreciate, because so many of us have been running near the top of the bell curve. so when you're playing a game where it's possible to run bad for so long, it's almost impossible to not stop during those bad stretches and be like "i don't even know if i'm a winning player." and of course the sort of "theoretical bounds" of MTT variance are such that you might never know. so, the best thing to do is just to try to surround yourself with other players who you consider to be intelligent, critical thinkers, who can help you not only improve but make sure you don't "fix" leaks that don't exist.

but you're definitely right in the basic notion that simply getting it in good a lot does not necessarily mean you're a winning player. it could definitely mean you're missing profitable, aggressive spots. but it's going to be really hard to judge that for yourself, as if you're continually missing those spots, it's probably because you don't recognize them in the first place.

i'm rambling. hope this was helpful. moral of the story: talk to other players you think are good/smart. don't get complacent. but don't overestimate your own self-evaluation skills. objective observers/critics with different experience/skillsets are invaluable.