new poker player needing poker advice from anybody

human_pear

howdy guys and girls, i have been playing on this site for other 6 months but seem to have the same sort of problem which i cant seem to address.

during mtt's i seem to get towards the bubble about 65% of the time but my problem is that i seem to lose my confidence in raising or going all in because i am more interested in making the money than having a chip stack to start a serious assult on winning the tournament.

for example if i have 10,000 chips and there is 20 places left until the money and the blinds are 250,500 i seem to not have the confidence to raise to 1500 with a good hand i only play premium hands (aces,kings,queens, ak,aq) what can i try and do to gain some confidence?

any body who would like to this problem i would be really greatful

thanks sky poker

the human pear   :-)

The_Don90

everyone is in the same boat as yourself. Take it easy, play for the win, use that their scared against them

Welcome to the forums.

human_pear

thanks the don, would you consider yourself confident????

The_Don90

Im very confident in BH's comes from a few wins, but ive learnt to use the scared money of the bubble against my opponents. Money means nothing, winning is everything, as a result you want to be stealing blinds building your stack, expessially if your a bigger stack.

Short stacked it is a bit differance but even then shove in most good unopened spots.

dav1964

Hi mate welcome to the forum,use your chips on the button and sometimes in the cut off on players that have shown unwillingness to call very often and also against stacks similar to your own as these are also generally scared.Do not try to bluff a big stack or a very short stack as they are the most likely to call with any 2 cards.Gl m8,dav

human_pear

i know that i need to find the right spots in betting or going all in but thats what im struggling to do also.

thanks for the advice i really appreciate it!!!

The_Don90

the one advice i will give, is you wont pick the right spots every time, but aggression will pay off. I usually try to balancing it as one shove per turn round the table, that way  dont gain/lose.

dav1964

In Response to Re: new poker player needing poker advice from anybody:

i know that i need to find the right spots in betting or going all in but thats what im struggling to do also. thanks for the advice i really appreciate it!!!
Posted by human_pear

Its an instinct when to make moves or not,with or without a hand.If you dont know WHEN to do this then you are not watching the table properly.There is NO set rule,nobody can teach you as different tables will have different players,dav

Dudeskin8

Hiya, I used to have this similar problem with being scared to exit the tourney especially as the bubble nears. One thing that has helped me is keeping a mentality of if I'm making the right move, shoving when I, don't need to but HAVE to the it doesn't matter what the outcome is I have made the right play. Also for when your short stacked try and wait till your on the button or even better in the small blind, in these areas you can pretty much shove any 2 but ofcourse make sure it isn't a stack who can't fold or a big stack that can afford to gamble, middle stacks are what you want to target.

GaryQQQ

Remember that nobody ever profits by playing for min cashes (which are often only around double the buy-in with a big field).

You must aim to win and consider a min cash to be unsatisfactory. Look at the prize structure of your favourite tournament and do the maths for yourself, winning 1 /10 and coming away with nothing in the other 9 will be miles better than min cashing in say 8/10. Look at the Sharkscope graph of a profitable MTT player, you will see that they don't mind busting out with nothing in several tournaments in a row with an aggresive approach that will bear fruit with the occasional win. As you already know strong tournament players abuse the bubble by ramping up the aggresion against players like you. Confidence is key, when you win a tournament for the first time you know you go into subsequent ones knowing you can do it again.

You would benefit from buying a poker book, I recomend 'Winning Poker Tournaments One Hand At a Time' Vol I and II, both available from online book sellers. Good luck.

YOUNG_GUN

Just dont play to cash, dont think of the bubble and play a normal game. most people will tighten up so should give you more opportunities to gain more chips, Dav is right you have to play the table mostly eg. shortstack in shove or fold mode with 5bb you have 15bb+ if you are on the button and them on bb would raise it up 3bb to put the pressure on, but if their a loose shortstack shoving every other hand then would not get involved unless you got a hand

LOL_RAISE

In Response to Re: new poker player needing poker advice from anybody:

the one advice i will give, is you wont pick the right spots every time, but aggression will pay off. I usually try to balancing it as one shove per turn round the table, that way  dont gain/lose.
Posted by The_Don90

the object of a tournament is to end up with all the chips, if you steal once a round you will never increase your stack.  also you are assuming that your steals will work 100% of the time, i wish!