How To Survive A Tourney

[miwass]

I like to play in tourneys.

I do well for a while, and then I looseto a loose player who happens to catch something.

I am ahead whenone of us goes all in, and he wins in the end.

How do I deal with this situation?

[stigd]

Easy answer - but a adwise difficult to follow...
DONT GO ALL IN UNLESS YOU HAVE THE NUT hand.

Biggest problem in tournament poker is getting married to a hand. And the term "I where ahead" does not count - only the result in the end.
Say you are holding QQ and flop shows J-9-8 rainbow... You think - I'm ahead.. Right?
You bet - and get reraised... and call.
Turn shows a Q... you move all in and get called... What do your opponent have???

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Even a top opponent with pocket 10 would reraise your bet preflop - knowing that he possible is "behind" at the time... But with an open end str + pocket pair + still 2 cards to come... Loads of outs.
What error did you do in this hand...`? Forgot to geep an eye on the possible outcome of the hand.
A bad player could even have played the same way with like K10 suited.

My advise is to stop this all in play - and use it only when you have a nut hand or close to that.
In the above example, I would surely NOT move all in, as I always (depending on the player of cause) expect the opposition to be a clever player. If he reraise me post flop - he must have something..!
I would have bet the same as I did post flop (the bet he reraised) - and see his reaction. You just MIGHT have the next card cheap, if he wanna trap you. At this point I would be SURE that he got a 10... and who knows,- you just MIGHT have a lucky draw on the river to make a full house.

GL with it.

PS... You should take a look at Roy Rounder's book "No limit hold'em secrets"

http://files.meetup.com/222128/NoLimitHoldemSecrets.pdf (Download and start reading from page 43)

Nice link Stigd , I've always enjoyed reading Roy Rounders emails that you can subscibe to. He talks simple poker terms and the link to his book is a must read to anyone who wants to improve there game.

If someone goes allin before me I only call if I now I got it covered. Learn to fold'em.
I use to fold strong pocket cards preflop as a way to stop me getting hooked on cards that don't hold up. That way it doesn't hurt no more when I have to fold a hand that gets beaten on the river.

The key thought I try to keep in my mind when playing any tourney is that the objective is to OUTLAST everyone, or outlast as many as you can.

Once I started getting that into my head, along with all the great tips and lessons you get from everywhere and everyone, I found that I have lessen the number of times I get myself into life or death situations when I have a comfortable stack mid tourney.

Agree with the posts. The allin move is so overused online the only real defense is to only play the nuts. While there is a time and place for the allin - for example when short stacked- there are few times the allin move as a lead out raises is sensible. Why raise 40 or 50x the big blinds - if you do have a hand and all fold you win a trifle, if you get two or three other nutters calling - even with AA you are less than 50% to win.

To stay alive in a tourney avoid the traps, avoid playing junk and let the cards come to you. Yes, you may still have that AA cracked or have a bonehead call on a 21 to 1 shot and win but that is part of the game.

I just wanted to add, in cash games its ok to push small edges. In tourneys be extremely wary of pushing small edges, and consider your stack size. Even if you have a good hand, you can lose. It might be better to fold if you are really unsure of your strength. If you dont have a large stack try playing a bit more conservative!

Thanks for the link stigd, good read.

[arjonius]

Losing because someone sucks out on you is part of the game. It happens to everyone and can't be avoided. So, there are two things to look at. One is whether you want the loose players to call you with their inferior hands, and the other is how much of your stack your willing to put in with how much of an edge. If your style is to shove all your chips in with small edges such as the better side of coin flips or60-40, then you're going to lose and bust out pretty often - almost half the time. So to build on what has already been noted, the alternative to look at is playing smaller pots with small edges, and big pots when you have bigger edges.

OMG how to survive !! lol that is the question.

Some fishes saying all in67 or 89 and u have AA, KK or AK and the Flop: maybe :5 7 A or6 10 etc. and the turn K (something what s good for u) and the (F.ck,d) River Card makes 4 the fishes Straight !!!!!!!!

The key to winning a tourney
Steady chip growth You have allot of time you don`t have get all your chips at once.
Don`t let some one else decide when you are going to go all in.Keep yourself from going on tilt,Even ifa donkeats your stack you are still in.Watch your bubble once you get a chip lead you dont have to play every hand.Lets the little fish fight.You haveto realize when you are beatIf you can be beat you usually are so fold dont feed the nutt hand. Then most important pray to the poker gods

I agree that's it's difficult to survive tournaments because there's the odds are terrible. One way or another, you're going to have a bad beat, and if you're too greedy, you'll end up losing all your chips.

It's happened to me quite a bit.

My question is: What do you do when you have AA and someone goes all-in preflop?