texan_driver

I'll start off by saying this isn't intended to be whining, so I hope it doesn't come off that way.The past 60 days I've been on a major losing streak in my poker. It's happened in all games...Cash, MTTs, and SnGs. I've lost nearly 50% of my bankroll the past 60 days, which is probably 4 or 5 times higher than any other losing streak I've had in 5 years of playing. My strength has always been my SnG and my MTT play. Especially in SnGs...I've built most of my bankroll in those. I've been working on my cash game and have historically been about even, or a slight loser in those. I'm not a

30odd6, The main flaw I see is that in tournaments, especially early, I think you should be less concerned about protecting the pot you're in and more concerned about protecting your total stack. That's why people are advocating a check or small bet on the turn. Granted, you are giving your opponent the right odds to continue to the river. But you prevent yourself from getting into a big pot with really only a marginal hand. Losing a big pot early can really put you in a difficult situation in a tourny. It sounds simple, but since you have a medium strength hand, you want to play cautiously

I actually enjoy playing Rush. It works out well for me because I usually don't get a lot if time to play in a day between job,wife, and baby. I can get a lot of hands in in about 30-45 mins. On how to play it, I agree with pretty much everything trystero said. Play fundamentally sound and positionally aware poker. Avoid marginal hands out of position. Pretty much everything he said above. Do that and you'll be profitable.

I agree with Biff 100%. You made the right play and got your money in as a big favorite. It's unfortunate that it didn't work out. As poker players we'd love to get our money in as a 75% favorite everytime. But that still means that 25% of the time we will lose. Don't let the fact that you lost this pot discourage you. Also, you had just over 10 big blinds at the start of the hand and 4 people away from the money. So you probably wouldn't be able to just fold your way into the money.

For me so much depends on the table and my table image and the momentum if the game. However, my general default is OOP 4-bet with AA & KK and call the 3-bet with QQ and see a flop. On the button, my general default is 4-bet with all of them. I will vary all of this too if I've played with my opponents before and they know my tendancies and I know theirs.

I would play it the same. I like the $600 bet. If you check and he bets 1000, then you are guessing, especially since you say you don't have much info on the player. If you bet 600 and he raises you significantly then it's an easy fold.

I would not have re-raised to $8.40 pre-flop. I think calling the villian's raise to $3.40 is better. I know not everyone agrees with me on that, but that's my style. If you just call the pre-flop bet and see the same flop & villian makes a near pot sized bet on that flop, it's not nearly as difficult to call and see what happens on the turn. It won't cost you your entire stack. For nearly the same amount of money as your pre-flop re-raise, you could get to the turn and have a whole lot more info on the strength of both his and your hands. Just thought I'd provide a different take on this

I think playing too loosely as the chip leader is a recipe for spewing chips away most of the time. When most people see big stacks raise, they typically don't give them credit for a big hand. They think you are just trying to bully them. Also, a lot of lower stacks aren't even caring about image or anything like that. They are simply waiting for an above average hand and shoving. So, I don't think it's correct to necessarily play like a nit. I would raise and bet to take a stab at pots, but don't allow yourself to get into a big pot without having an actual hand.

I've been playing some online MTTs (usually 300+ entrants or so) lately and have found that I've been making it "deep" rather consistently, but get bored and make a stupid play and go out probably earlier than I should. When I say deep I mean at least 70% of the entrants eliminated. I find that after about 3 or 4 hours of play, I get bored/restless and end up making a stupid bluff or try to make a hero call and blow off a significant portion of my chips. I typically play a small-ball approach and this gets me pretty far, but I've been having a hard time making it to the final table lately.

There are obviously lots of books out there. I recently read Negeanu's Power Hold Em, and it's very good. Lots of good concepts that I haven't really found in others. I also think Phil Gordon's Little Green Book is pretty good too & easy to read. I've gotten a lot of benefit out of a training website. I use PokerVT. It's pretty good. There are lots of good videos, and you get perspectives from a variety of players, so it's not just the same thing over & over.

I agree with most everything that's been said. Daniel's small-ball strategy is mostly a tournament style strategy. I think it works very well for tournaments, but it's not ideal for low limit cash games. For those I've it works best to keep things simple: fold when you have a bad hand; pot control in marginal situations; get the chips in with a big hand. You do that & you'll be a winner in those games over the long haul.

I don't know what to tell you. Maybe you have to adjust your play if you play lower limits. I do play a lot of lower limit games and I've had a lot of success for a few years. I play a lot of SnGs (typically $2, $5, & $10) and cash games (.10/.25 & .25/.5 NL). What I consistently find is that players bluff too much and call with mediocre to bad hands. If that's not what you call an ideal opponent, then I don't know what you're looking for. Sometimes you will take ridiculously bad beats, but your wins should overcome these. I'm not trying to call you out or anything but just show that

If you truly want to "take things more seriously" then you need to also take bankroll mgt seriously. Otherwise you'll never be able to make and keep money in the long term. Also, I don't buy that you can't beat the low limit games because the play is too wild. If you can't beat them you either aren't fundamentally good or are bluffing too much. If you are fundamentally sound and make smart decisions there's no reason you can't make money in those games.

I have to agree with RizeorFall on his post. If your stats are what they say they are then you should be making money. If you're making the money 4 out of 10 times, and 3 of those are first place, then that should be about a 20% profit...pretty good actually. And if the worst you do is break even for a month, then that's pretty good too It sounds like you're playing them the "correct" way for the most part. Doesn't sound like there's much I do differently. I'd say keep making smart decisions and in the long run you'll be a winner. Which you don't want to do is start pressing and make bad pl

It's difficult for me to think of a scenario where I would not shove here. I'm not folding, and I really have no desire to see a flop with this hand. I think I shove everytime, with these blinds and stack sizes.