I watched the tourney where bond18 played the $25 and did well. Why did he do well...without labouring this point too much it was because he hit cards and had 2 huge suckouts. Granted i did watch and he said a few things that i thought...hey id never though of it like that or id never do that, but primarily it was just you do well in tourneys when you run good and you dont when you dont.

Everyone runs well and runs bad. Everyone wins money some days looses money the other.

The point is it's these small edges which mean that when guys like bond18 run well they get into first rather than 7th of a big field tourney and when they run like hell they still cash.

It's all about maximising your wins when you are winning and minimising your losses when you are loosing. Sure Phil Ivey needs to run like god to win a tourney just like we do, the point is that when he does run like god he wins every damn time and doesn't spew it away 40% of the time like I do.

Originally Posted by clumber

The pokersavvy videos only help so far. The ones i watched were like right so ive got AA here..ive got a boat here...ill just win every race i play then. Seems to me that it all comes down to timing and luck. The deeper stacked tourneys are different, but there arent many for low buy ins. The problem with attempting to be aggressive and bluff a lot in low buy in tourneys is you come across guys who dont fold anything and if you never get a hand you have nowhere to go.

First point: You are correct to a degree, but consider this. For one, if you were an instructor would you really like to post videos where you were losing? He has put on showcase ONE tournament out of thousands that he plays. He probably only had so much material to chose from, and he happened to get lucky when he needed to. Tournaments are all about pushing small edges, then extracting maximum value when you are in position to make a run in the tournament. I always say you can't win the tournament in the first hour, or the second, but you can win it when the money is starting to matter IE: 20 or 30 people left. This is where a micro tournament becomes a 5/10 game and your ten cent buyin is either going to turn into a $20 score or a $500 score within the next few all ins. This is where you put pressure on people, in any buyin tournament. This position doesn't come around too often.

Tbh, I feel that I could do a better job making videos than most of the people who do it. Sure pokersavvy and poker x factor are great and most of the instructors who teach there are better than me at poker (maybe not mtts, but poker in general for sure) but the way they go about teaching it is garbage most of the time. Sure, when we have AK here this is what this certain pro player would do, fine, we can mimic that and pick up a few things like this here and there, but what about the other players at the table? How about try to help us develop reads, tell us what to consider on every street, what could he have, why does he have to has it, why can't he have this, why he CANT have that, etc. It seems like most of the instuctors (bar a few who are phenomenal) are either holding back in most videos these days or they simply don't care and are only doing the video to get there name out there and collect their $200.

To your second point in the bold: I hate this mentality and sure you could probably win with it, but could you crush? If this was true, and I was playing in a tournament where people literally did not fold when I got a good hand, I wouldn't be complaining about it. In reality, people do fold. They fold when they have nothing (this comes back to getting deep in the tournament) and sometimes, they call when they have nothing. This is why the best players merge their range on the river so heavily vs bad players. When a bad player check calls, then check calls again, then checks, his range is so polarized that no matter how lose he is calling you can own them in a vacuum. Maybe you need to stop worrying about when your good hands are going to get cracked and bluffing them when you miss, rather worry about increasing what you valuebet on the river. don't be afraid to fire the third bullet with second pair, for value, and safely fold to a check raise. Do not feel any shame in betting with what might be good. If you are beat you are beat, might as well pat yourself on the back from a sick value bet and then a great fold.

Originally Posted by 4tun8

I also disagree with this in those videos they also say things like "Ok if the button raises we defend here with KJo" and when to fold to a button raise etc. Those types of things I had a lot of problems with.

Yeah I mean what can we do? We are paying pot smoking internet poker playing kids to sit down, act professional and tell us what they would do. Some people just don't fold king jack fwiw. People like me, and the players who have taught me call, raise with, and fold KJ. Sometimes they raise T4s on the button and fold JKo (I like this line and have used it before) but when they do it they told me why, and when I teach and I call out of position I explain to my students/friends that in order to make such a play I better not only have a damn good reason but a plan for different flops and different bet sizes a player might make. If we can't anticipate our opponents then I think it is ok to pass up a small edge. Poker tournaments are about pressing small edges but if this is going to set us up to being outplayed then we should pick a better spot to put our money in. You don't ever hear anyone in a video talking about that huh.

Originally Posted by in4rehab

I don't really get into a lot of hard situations where I have no idea where I'm at so it's hard to provide examples. I think that's kind of the problem though. I don't take enough risks, I just wait till I see a situation where I can see I hold a clear advantage and then I get in there. Problem is that these obvious advantages don't come up often enough. While I'm patiently grinding away the blind levels are increasing and I'm not keeping pace. Basically I'm a cash player who's not adjusting to the fact that the blinds go up and everyone's not 100BB's deep.

From what I can gather from these videos I'm watching I need to be better at things like sensing smaller advantages over my opponents range and spots where I have a good amount of fold equity on a 3bet. My preflop addiction to the "pot" button needs to go too, MJPerry's articles have a really good bit on bet sizing.

I think the only way through this is to just experiment with being more aggressive, taking more smart risks mid game and to be less obsessed with getting my chips in ahead. But thanks for your help everyone anyway.

I could write up another long response to this because I do think this is a pretty interesting topic, but I don't feel like typing anymore and it's all going to boil down that you should probably be playing

Tighter on the short stack (10-15bb) than you normally do

looser on the shortest stack (less than 10bb) than you normally do

significantly tighter on the 15-25bb stack

and then significantly looser on the 30bb+ stack with antes. And when I say loose I do not mean calling I mean raising.

tightaggressive you mention something about fring three bullets. Barring a few online tourneys you dont get enough chips to fire 3 bullets! My problem is these small edge situations. You have like A3 otb with 15bbs and the cut off opens. You think your A is good and it is and he calls with KJ and just beats you anyway. Maybe im just reeling from losing every 50/50 60/40 ive played lately and having run into AA a pitiful amount, but pushing rthese small edges is going to lead to huge variance am i right? My attitude is probably wrong but if i have A3 and i can see my opponent has KQ or something similar i just tend to put the money in and expect to lose. Then after losing 10 in a row i have no clue what im supposed to do. I think im just going to continue trying to be aggressive, probably getting more aggressive just to see how it goes.

In4rehab did you take down your tourney?

Originally Posted by clumber

tightaggressive you mention something about fring three bullets. Barring a few online tourneys you dont get enough chips to fire 3 bullets! My problem is these small edge situations. You have like A3 otb with 15bbs and the cut off opens. You think your A is good and it is and he calls with KJ and just beats you anyway.

you obviously don't think about poker properly. you put people on ranges, not randomly guess if your "ace high is good" preflop...?? that doesn't make sense. when someone raises do you automatically put them on 56s or AK?