why can't i get one?

[Guest XXEddie]

If you can help Daniel(or anybdoy, really), I would like your opinion of somethingRecently I have made 3 final tables in tournaments each with about 700-900 entrants. I finshed 5th, 5th, and 3rd. For some reason, I can get to a final table every now and then...but I cant seem to get one under my belt. I am usually pretty aggressive, and will risk a lot of my chips on a draw. I know this isn't much to go off of, but I was wondering if you had ant advice on how to finally win one? Anything would help.thanx

[KDawgCometh 2]

how big are your chip stacks when you reach those final tables? this is very important. Of course some of it is luck, but omepeople can't finish(not sayingthat you can't). Once you get down to three or four handed you should be focusing on the win and the win only. Pick off those who are trying to move up a couple of places. Don't get too aggressive and pick on those who won't play back. I haven't won an online tournament but I have won a couple around the size of 100 people live, and the times I've won have been when I've had a good amount of chips. If you are big stacked don't be afraid to take a 60/40 situation with the worst of it, it'll make a statement and it'll get you more actin if you haven't crippled yourself

[Guest XXEddie]

I think I was 3rd 5th and 8th....and when I was in 8th in was THAT short stacked...I had lots of time

[KDawgCometh 2]

i guess the other question would be how loose/tight was the competition. Also with the bigger stacks how close were they in chips, i.e. if you moved in on them and they didn't have a really strong hand could you really hurt them. I was able to place third in a mid sized tourny when I reached the final table short stacked, the key was that the chip positions were fairly close and the players were really trying to move up positions, this is the time to gamble, so I started pushing in as I realized earlier in the tourny that these guys would fold to big reraises if the had even a decent hand. I was able to get a guy to lay down AQo by coming over the top with just 97s. The key was that by this point I had picked up a lot of blinds, antes, and bets and would every now and then show down a good hand when I did this. The other key was that even though he was second in chips and I was fifth by this point, I would severely cripple him if he lost what he thought was a coin flip. By this point after this move in I now had some really good chips and could really do some work, so I showed the 97s and really put this guy on tilt to where he then syphened off a lot of chips to me. My downfall in that tourny was that I got really frustrated by the chip leader going over the top of me and I pushed in on a mediocre hand and ran into a good one.

[Guest XXEddie]

i cant remember that many deatails....other than what I was eliminated onA 10 v. QJ (2 2 7 J 8 )A 6 v. q 10 (A Q 10 9 2)AK v. AJ (J K 4 4 J)

[Alcatraz 0]

If you can help Daniel(or anybdoy, really), I would like your opinion of somethingI am usually pretty aggressive, and will risk a lot of my chips on a draw. thanx

Question: Are you calling on your draws or are you semi-bluffing with them?

[Guest XXEddie]

If you can help Daniel(or anybdoy, really), I would like your opinion of somethingI am usually pretty aggressive, and will risk a lot of my chips on a draw. thanx

Question: Are you calling on your draws or are you semi-bluffing with them?

depends on the draw. gutshot str8...folded to any "good sixed" bet... open ended or double gutshot, will usually call a bet a MAYBE a raise, flush draw...usually win bet call or raise...depends if I think me hitting a pair would win....here where I get maybe too aggressiveChips:me; 5000other guy(youll know who) 3500blinds 75/150had K 5 in BB. 1 limp and SB completes flop A K 9 limper bets 400,SB folds, I raise to 1300 he goes all-in. I call. I put him on excatly what I thought he had a low ace...A 7 off infact. turn and river are no helps and i am hurt bad....now....am I being to aggressive with draws maybe?

[KDawgCometh 2]

Chips: me; 5000 other guy(youll know who) 3500 blinds 75/150 had K 5 in BB. 1 limp and SB completes flop A K 9 limper bets 400,SB folds, I raise to 1300 he goes all-in. I call. I put him on excatly what I thought he had a low ace...A 7 off infact. turn and river are no helps and i am hurt bad....now.... am I being to aggressive with draws maybe?

on this one yes. It is better to push in than call off chips with a draw. Here you probably should've laid it down as you had plenty of chips for that stage of the tourny. The blinds were really low and allowed for play. There definetly could've been a better spot to call your chips off. Like I said there's more leeway on what you push in as opposed to calling off

[Alcatraz 0]

Chasing draws in tournaments is generaly a bad idea. Most flops are 2 handed so the odds are rarely there. Even when they are, draws are all about long term expectation and tournaments are about short term gains. In tournaments where the blinds are large in relation to the chip stacks, chasing draws will bleed your chips away at an alarming pace.Large semi-bluffs are different because in tournaments you stand a good chance of making Ace little lay the hand down. In the example given, I'd say moving all in would have been a better play, unless you believe the better would call an all in raise with ace/little. If you think he'll call a large raise with ace little and the sb has folded, I'd suggest waiting for a better spot to gamble.... unless you're getting short stacked.That said, I'm not a professional player. I play mostly in small buy in tournaments where 90% of final table play is preflop play and I've won several of them. This year I've made the final table in better than 40% of the tournaments I've played. But it's a different game from the larger buy in events so Daniel may very well have a very different answer for you

[SorryFugu 0]

Consider setting aside a portion of your tournament bankroll to play short-handed SNG's on some of the big poker sites. You can start with 5 or 6 people, all equally stacked, and the probabilities and agression patterns should more or less reflect those you find at a final table. (Especially once the blinds go up a bit, and you hit the 10x BB boundary.)Applying the lessons learned there, I was finally able to get over the hump and take down my first (and since, second) MTT. As an added bonus, SNG's are fun and profitable!Check out wmajik's now many-moons-old article here...http://teamfu.freeshell.org/tournament/the...d_stealing.html...for deeper analysis of mathematically appropriate late-tourney aggression. Again, geared toward the SNG'er, but the lessons translate.Good luck.

[Guest XXEddie]

just finished another...5th 2K payout for my 100 buy in.....short stacked whole time...and for first timewhen i went all-in....i ahd the worst handKQ v AQ (Q J 5 5 4)not much i could do...bout 70000 when blinds were 5000/10000......KQs in sB.....i always push here

[MrConceit 0]

SorryFugu's idea of shorthanded SnGs sounded like a good one. But it doesn't sound overall like you're playing at all bad or suboptimally, from what you've said, in tourneys. Depending on how much you're calling draws anyway. As others said semi-bluffing them is better, and the one example you gave, with a nut flush draw AND mid pair, you're at least equal to most holdings there. In the exact one you gave you're like 50.1 favorite, haha. That "draw" example you gave was an extremely strong one for you. Plus you did semi-bluff that one, you just didn't semi-bluff allin. :)Actually cashing first takes some time sometimes. A lot of the end comes down to luck. I got a freakin' 3rd myself today. I was bigstack for a lot of the final table, but when we got down to final 6, this other guy had busted like 7/8 and he got huge and kept pressing really hard. I got to final 3, but got into a nasty tangle with bigstack who drew out on me.It was PLO8/b though, that's my new "fun" game I'm playing.

[Guest XXEddie]

now im pissed....just made back2back final tables......6 left im leader.....with 270k...ish2nd is about 150I COMPLETELY gave this gave this away ened up in sixhave QJ in BB checks flop QJ9, bet 20k(i have about 90) one callsturn 2; i move in, he calls with Q 10, rirver is 8......i really gavce this any though

[Stewy 0]

I feel like I have had the same problem. I keep getting myself in good position but coming up short. I am going to quit worrying about what place I might finish and change gears. Start shooting from the hip and trying to get all my money in the pot with the best of it. IF the other players sense that you are anxious to get all of your money in the pot they might just want to stay out your way. A few nights ago I made the final table even in chips with the top 4 and ended up finishing 8th. I felt like I choked and felt pretty sick to my stomach for a good 3 hours.