So I've been running horribly bad in tournaments lately. It seems that whatever style I play its wrong, and when I get my money in with the best it never holds up.
Is it most likely variance? What things do you think I should.

Early I try to play a little conservative but take flops since blinds are low but when they start getting up there I play tight but very agressive. When I get deeper into tournies I've been getting good hands and they seem to run into the only stack bigger than mine at the table and I go broke.

any suggestions would be helpful

do more of this

Once, I played 40 tourneys and didnt cash 1.

Another time, I played 15 of the same tourneys and final tabled 6, won 3 of those.

Tourney varience is a sick, sick thing.

JC,

I've been railing you quite a bit lately, and I haven't seen you cash in forever.

Variance sucks.

- Zach

I've cashed a few...yesterday, 24th in the wcoop last friday and 5th in a rebuy on thursday...

Just haven't been winning much though.

Ah.

I just rail the wrong ones.

You typically get coolered in them.

Its probably a combination of variance and "Early I try to play a little conservative but take flops since blinds are low".

Even if blinds 10/20 in a 1500 stack tourney this can get expensive when you catch a piece of the flop but dont wind up winning. You can easily find yourself down to 1100-1200 chips before you realize it. Then youre relying on decent cards fairly quickly to avoid pressure from paying the blinds.

When Im running bad like that I sit down with my favorite TAG "preflop recommendations" in front of me, and stick to them...if its not on the list then fold, no playing the button or blind just for odds, no continuation bets if I dont hit unless Ive got a very good read that villain didnt hit. Even if I dont cash that tourney, the discipline is good, and coming back from a card dead 700-800 chips to cash is a great reminder of the power of patience.

What seemed like a marathon deep stack tourney on stars last night also seemed like a good way to get back in a groove..though I wont know till I wake up enough to play again! In these you can play your more LAG/small ball strategy and if you go down early (as I did) youve got forever to build back up without any blind pressure. If this was a typical DS tourney EVERYBODY is playing small ball...its a "limp festival" as Zach described it (or something like that). If your post-flop play is good, the implied odds are awesome. In fact if you want post-flop/hand reading practice these seem like a relatively cheap way to get in a ton of hands.

darn..my joke fizzled
no one visits General enough?

:NeedAttentionFace:

My strategy the last two days has worked really well, but I'm curious what you all think. It could easily be just dumb luck (which seems more likely than good play). I try to play TAG in the beginning, waiting for premium hands, and pushing the hell out of them if I hit (to the point of overplaying most times). If I don't go from 1500 to 2000 or so before level 2 ends I'm usually around 1000 or so.

At that point, I start playing as many cheap flops as I can before the blinds escalate and waiting for that magic one where I hit a weird two pair or straight and try to get back up to 2000. If that doesn't work and I hit 800 or so I just look for a coinflip so a double-up can mean something.

How does any of that sound for STT strategy?

lol I didn't get it...

Last thing I saw in general was Blair Rodman's topic getting pointlessly and offensively flamed. I'm not a real fan of his, but he should have been shown some respect. I tend to steer clear of that place.

OP claps for his own posts all the time.
I was razzzzing him.
**************************

SpiderGuard,

I was with you until u said STT.
imo, no need to over play hands in STT to try to build a stack.