Making the money

I am playing in free rolls and low by in tournaments and on average getting close to the money stage 3/4 of the time but I seem to be getting knocked out just short.
Sometimes I have the chips to be in the blinds and wait until people get knocked out but seem to get dragged in to hands with playable cards. Should I continue to play these hands or show more patients anf fold?
Other times I am short stacked and try and choose a good hand to go all in to try and improve. Should I keep doing this to try and win or should I again try and limp in and win a little money?
Look forward to your suggestions and hopefully being able to improve my game and finances
Regards
Taz

Same prob. in my case,I triple my chips and than keep playing almost every time i am in dealer or blind position and finally I lose chips and blind levels eat me.Maybe sit-out for a while,I don`t know.

[arjonius]

Try to place less importance on cashing and more on finishing high. Because of the way tournament prize pools are usually structured, you'll make more money this way, even though you don't cash as often.

be confident in what your doin. Sounds pretty much the way I play and one month Ill hit and the next wiff wildly. Its poker, its luck, and its unpredictable. I won 2 freerolls on Partypoker that started with 11500 people each within a month of one another. Each tournament took a between 6 and 8 hours to play. As I remember, and I guess you could say thats when I was playing my best since I had the best results, I was very very patient into the $, keeping the risk down as much as possible. I personally think you have to commit to one side of the spectrum or the other at different times of the tournament. What Im sayin is if you get pegged as super aggressive or super conservative good players will catch on, so you gotta be one for a while and then the other for a while. Theres no timetable or anything set to it, just make sure you keep changing it up, trying to keep down the risk, and play smart solid poker. You will ineviteably need to get lucky within a tournament to win as well. I sucked out atleast once in both tournaments pretty bad to win, but luck is part of the game. GOOD LUCK!!!!

When I reach a good position, I usually wait until I get to money, and don't play unless i have one of the 5-6 top pocket hands (AA,KK..) expecially in buy-in tournaments because at least I get back what I payed and had a couple of hours of fun, that's why I play poker after all!! As I'm into it, I hold on as far as I can and sometimes I manage to come back and end in the final table..If you have troubles cashing, I think this is the most effective strategy

[baz146]

Some times you cant just wait for AA,KK etc
you have to play a poor hand as well.
If you only play high cards you soon get found out.
The odd silly hand 23, 45 74,
will often win especially on Partypoker.

[arjonius]

Playing tight as you approach cashing is a pretty common approach. And if your goal is cashing in that particular tournament, that's fine.
The thing to recognize is that this is not the same as maximizing the total amount you win over many tournaments. If that's your goal, then it's higher EV to use the pre-bubble period to accumulate chips from the players who tighten up. Over time, you'll cash somewhat less often, but when you do, those additional chips will help you place higher, which mean more money added to your bankroll.

Originally Posted by arjonius

Playing tight as you approach cashing is a pretty common approach. And if your goal is cashing in that particular tournament, that's fine.
The thing to recognize is that this is not the same as maximizing the total amount you win over many tournaments. If that's your goal, then it's higher EV to use the pre-bubble period to accumulate chips from the players who tighten up. Over time, you'll cash somewhat less often, but when you do, those additional chips will help you place higher, which mean more money added to your bankroll.

Is it important who you cash in against as gone all in on flop on the bubble with strongest hand against chip leader on table quite a few times and he has called with value bet and hit his card on river.

there are no such good rules, it 's called poker... anything can crank out something.

[Wakou222]

Look at what has happened in those tourneys where you "bubble" My guess is that you are psychologically influenced by your bubble status, and change your play, possibly by making smaller raises with strong hands, and letting weaker hands see the next card. Concentrate on the low/medium stacks, always raise their blinds and always raise raggy flops against them. They will very likely be looking to play safe and make the money. If you are big stack, it is easy to see flops with ATC and hurt smaller stacks when you hit, so avoid taking on the big boys unless you are monstered. Very small stacks with less than 10 M are likely to shove with ATC, so be sure you have a hand before raising a pot with a very small stack behind. All pro's who I have read on this subject advocate playing MORE aggressively as the bubble approaches, this suits them as they are looking to profit over long periods, and hundreds of tourneys, and are looking for what they call the +EV tactic. Those of us lower down the food chain may find the regular disappointments harder to stomach, and opt to win a small amount on a regular basis, rather than going for broke and winning a lot less often.