[Closed] losing hands to poor players

Well if you've shoved I think it was a little drastic, but besides of that it was only a bad beat. It's most important not to have that 'fear' you mentioned, because in the long run you are making the right decision. And for playing in the higher stakes, if you don't have the bankroll for that, it's like going willfully in your doom. If you feel like you are getting beat by marginal hands all the time, get some time off, maybe 1 to 2 days until you are fresh to start winning again.

Thanks for the advice I appreciate it.

However with only 5 BB's do you really think that pushing was the wrong decision? I felt like I could steal and if I got called I still had a decent chance to make my hand.

Mike

for sure moving up would reduce these type of incidents but you would probably have to go up to at least 10-20 dollar sit n gos to pretty much eliminate them......even then it's going to happen because there are the strangest people at even the highest levels,i recall liv boeree talking of a hand she got knocked out with in a BIG live tournament.....as i recall she had around 200k chips and an opponent with also 200k chips who bet 40k pre flop,she re raised all in with her kings for 200k and he called off his whole stack with...43

he won the hand of course.

a bit drastic? he had 5 big blinds ♠ what would you have him do, raise to 3bb and fold to a 3-bet?

Shoving your AJ was all you could do, but that really isnt a huge beat, you'll get much worse the more you play so if you cant handle that type of situation mentally then you will struggle.

Sorry I didn't really look at the blinds, my bad. You're both right mhenley and StoneJ, sorry again

Yes, playing in higher stakes would reduce chances of some idiot calling an all-in with 42s. But chances that your AJ will lose to AT, or will run into AQ will still be the same. The problem is in your mindset, not in the stakes or bad opponents. I mean, if you know that this donk is gonna call an all-in with any 2 cards, don't you want to play with him as much as possible? I think you do
And your shove was absolutely correct, not even close to drastic. I'm not a very good SNG player, but with 5BB's left and first to act from SB you basically can shove any 2 cards and it will be a correct decision. A call from BB in this spot is whole another thing.

I guess then there really is nothing you can do to avoid this except continue to make good decisions knowing that the majority of the time it will work to your advantage.

I could have accepted him calling with AT, AQ or even a pocket pair but 42s

On lower stakes you can also make mistakes yourself, such as shoving KTs against two big stacks on the bubble when you're a medium stack yourself and the shortstack has only 2 BB left. That's as frustrating as loosing with AJs against 24o. Sometimes you're lucky and most of the times you'll beat 24o. If you're a good player, you'll win in the long run, no matter how many times you'll get sucked out on.

Originally posted by mhenley
I guess then there really is nothing you can do to avoid this except continue to make good decisions knowing that the majority of the time it will work to your advantage.

Bingo!

over last week i have been knocked out of almost every tourney by the worst hand, some are actually unbelivable, why would you CALL all in with K8, 56 ect against QQ and AA. However, im still playing the same game and hope that all this bullshit about it will work out in the long run is true. I think, if i go out with the best hands, at least i wasnt outplayed and my opponent did something stupid and got very luck, but i do wish i had the donkey luck from time to time.

You might want to look up the odds are that you win or lose with a hand vs a certain hand. AJ vs 43 both offsuit. you will win the hand 63,6% of the time. This means roughly 2/3 times you win but that also means 1/3 times you wll lose..

Even AK suited vs 27 offsuit only has a 68%% chance to win.. So you might not realise that people may be making very good pushes since even if they are behind they still have a decent chance to win. Might want to download the ICM trainer for some help with pushing/calling.

The only time your odds of winning are really bad is when your dominated. In time you'll laugh about when people play that bad. And you will realise that's how you make money in poker. I'd love to play against players who call all ins with hands like that since i'll be ahead nearly every single time. Sure it sucks.. but keep in mind.. Do you really want your opponents to play good?

Well i don't see whats the problem here. He called you with a somewhat decent hand that happens to have 38% equity against your specific hand and won. Its closer to a flip then to a bad beat so i don't see what there to whine about.

In your example he should actually be calling you with a range of 51.4% and you should be pushing around 70% of hands here given the situation and stack sizes. So even when you thing someone makes a bad call, its actually a good one.

You should really work on your ICM and download the free pokerstrategy software to improve your game.

Originally posted by MatejM47
Well i don't see whats the problem here. He called you with a somewhat decent hand that happens to have 38% equity against your specific hand and won. Its closer to a flip then to a bad beat so i don't see what there to whine about.

Damn those 3 sided coins!

Originally posted by MatejM47
Well i don't see whats the problem here. He called you with a somewhat decent hand that happens to have 38% equity against your specific hand and won. Its closer to a flip then to a bad beat so i don't see what there to whine about.

42 is a decent hand? What is a shit hand then?

In your example he should actually be calling you with a range of 51.4% and you should be pushing around 70% of hands here given the situation and stack sizes. So even when you thing someone makes a bad call, its actually a good one.

Does 51.4% range include 42s? I'm retiring from poker if it does...

P.S. And yes, 3-sided coins, damn you! ♦

good push nh wp.

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