Online Poker Tournament Rankings

 It's funny, I can't stand bad beat stories...or how someone shoves on the button with A9cc and runs into KK in the BB and they lose.  All of these things are standard and I'm left unimpressed about how horrible your luck is as mine is just as bad, I just don't bother other people with it.  But I do sympathize with negative variance, especially lots of negative variance in a short amount of time.  It may seem unremarkable, or you may not believe me, but in 72 hours I haven't been dealt a pocket pair above 9's (I think it's actually 7's, but I'm positive I haven't had 10's so I'm being cautious with my estimates), a AQ (suited or not) that's hit the flop as well as an AK (suited or not) that's hit the flop. Now if you just play recreationally, this may not be a big deal...but in this time I've put in 3, 4+ hour live sessions.  Played a live tourney (25th of 88th despite my bad run of cards - I won 2 races with 77 vs A10/AJ). In addition I've played 6 or 7 sng's, 8...maybe 10 MTT's and 2 full ring game cash sessions.  When you have a cold deck for even this long it's as if time is standing still, you think you'll never see two kings in the hole ever again.  You see your OPR stats getting killed and your BR vanishing and there's nothing you can do but hold on tight, play even tighter and wait for the poker gods to even things out for you.  So next time you want to unload on me about how your flopped set of Jacks got rivered by some donk who flushed it up by calling your preflop raise with 53hh, just be thankful that you've seen a set of Jacks and hope you encounter that donk again.

 So, it's my thought that one of the keys to be a consistently winning player is game selection.  A little background...I'm a low limit MTT enthusiast.  I play $3/5/10 MTT's regularly, according to OPR I'm ITM about 19% of the time and overall I'm a losing player (I'd prefer to consider myself breakeven, but the numbers - no matter how slim the margin - don't lie).  Lately though, I've been finding that I'm more likely to cash in some tourneys that I play with regularity than in others.  I play my fair share of the $3 KO 90 Man SnG's on Full Tilt and while, of course, I've taken it down now and again, cashed here and there and I'll usually KO at least one person...overall, it seems to me that when I'm finished, it's time wasted and another Mid Tourney Finish percentage point.  While on the other hand I really enjoy the $10 6max MTT (@ 8:30 PST) on Full Tilt and in this tourney I've taken it down outright, finished 2nd, finished 4th, cashed in it a number of times and in the past 3 evenings gone 13th, 11th and 7th dating back to Monday.  So why is it that I *seem* to do better in a bigger buy in tourney with less people and I personally think it's because this particular tournament suits my style of play.  With a great structure, long blind levels and, because it's 6 max, a ton of hands getting to be seen, I have the luxury of seeing a ton of hands and at the same time being extremely patient (one of my strong points I think).  I recognize I'm not a fast and loose player, ready to risk it all for a .50 KO Bounty and while I love the thrill of the hunt, getting it in light when only $3 is at risk, I have a deeper appreciation for going deep in something like the $10 6 Max.  I think that players like me, those who are currently students of the game, feel like they have an understanding but need more experience, could greatly benefit from being more selective of which games they opt in on and then try to define which games give them the largest edge to exploit.

 Don't get me wrong, I'm still going to donk around in those KO SnG's, as while I'm competitive and have a deep desire to win, I still like to enjoy myself at the table.  If you see me at the tables, say hello won't you?