Help light the way?

Celtic - thanks for the reply!

I agree, I still have a lot to learn, but my problem is not that I'm "not ready" for SNG's style gaming.

I've logged about 360 SNG tournaments on PokerStars so far and am holding at a 35% ITM percentage... unfortunately that was 38% about 2 weeks ago. Anyhow, I've been playing live poker in home games with various groups of people since 2005 and have had some moderate success for my buy-in levels, both online and off: I've cashed in the top 10 in a few 90 man SNG's on PokerStars, finished 21st in an 840 man on there about 3 weeks ago (before the slide began) and placed 3rd in an 85 man tourney at my local brick n' mortar casino during the Labor Day weekend. I need to keep developing my game just like anyone, but I know how to play tournament poker and am most comfortable in the SNG and MTT format. Cash games (at least for now) are not where I want to focus my development.

I may just be on a run-of-the-mill cold streak - one that has just happened to have vaporized 65% of my bankroll. I've been analyzing my own hand histories to try and plug any holes in my game. I now know that when I was on a bit of a heater a month or so ago that I subconsciously began opening up my starting hand range. This undoubtedly contributed to the start of this avalanche. I've seen some soul sucking bad beats lately - a string of 'em that would boil the blood of the coolest of characters - but to be fair, some of them involved hands that I shouldn't have been in on in the 1st place due to my table position, chip stack, or stage of the tournament.

Anyhow, like I said, I'm still reading and still analyzing my hand histories. I'm just looking for any other pointers you all may be able to offer. How have you come out of your cold streaks? I've had others before, but never this bad. I'm thinking of dropping in level and switching to double-or-nothings for the short term (I normally play 6-max SNG's). I just need to get a few cashes under my belt again and get the "I know I can win at these games" feeling back.

Thanks for anything else you all can add.

When running bad at any form of poker, you have to make sure you're not on osme sort of sublte perma tilt where you're making really bad decisions one after another. And by this I don't mean the huge calls or bluffs that cause you to bust from sng's or lose big pot.s. What I'm referring to and what I feel is fairly likely the case in your situation right now is that you are simply playing wrose than usual due to the negative reaction to a downswing. This is totally normal and most players aren't born with much tolercance to subtle tilt. So you're likely just taking bad lines in small pots and are less focussed on making what's objectively the best play right now than you were while you were running well.

So the solution to getting through rough patches of variacne and making sure you're playing your best is to tighten up a bit, play very ABC and don't get too out of line unless you're generally, logcially sure it's a good spot to. Post hands here in our sng forum for other sng players to critique and swallow your ego and think carefully about every piece of advice you're given. Being successful at poker is all about developing a skilled critical thought process and the quickest way to accelrate this is to post hands and study concepts. Examine small pots; hands where you weren't sure whethr to c bet or not, stuff like that. If you patch up your small leaks you'll soon find that getting sucked out on inpre-flop all ins a few tiomes doesn't matter nearly so much.

Stay enthusiastic and positive. Good luck.

Carroters - this is pretty much exactly what I was looking for. Thank you.

Any solid recommendations on postings/articles around here regarding the fine tuning of push/fold mechanics late in a SNG or MTT? I also need to improve my bubble play in general. Again, a huge amount of this mess as of late is a life-sucking cold run of cards, but I've been finishing 1-2 places out of the money too damn often lately not to be realistic and take ownership of the problem too.

Any links to FTR articles (or otherwise) that have helped you guys in these areas of your game would be great.

Poker Tournament Video - Turbo SnG 2-Table by BjsAust Micro Stakes $3+$0.40

I started with this video and watched it many times when I started out playing SnG's.

You get used to that strange accent after a while

Originally Posted by Sasquach991

Poker Tournament Video - Turbo SnG 2-Table by BjsAust Micro Stakes $3+$0.40

I started with this video and watched it many times when I started out playing SnG's.

You get used to that sexy accent after a while

agree