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What is your longest stretch without a top-3 MTT finish?

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  1. Pafnutka Pafnutka is offline

    Moscow
    Russian Federation

    Posts: 120
    Joined: Apr 09

    Oct 31st, 2010 (10/31/2010 3:20am)

    I was thinking about making this thread for a while, way before finally binking a decent score. Up until today, this entire year had been about as miserable as they come. So I wanted to find out, how often good players go thru horrible stretches like this.

    Obviously, I understand that being a micro and low buy-in MTT player with the majority of my volume played on pokerstars, I have to navigate through enormous crowds of morons, maniacs and regulars (average field size of MTTs I play is over 3,500) and run incredibly well in a given tourney to finish in the top three (let alone actually shipping one). Yet when it doesn’t happen for 14 straight months (not once!) and a span of just over 2,000 MTTs, and you know that you’re a winning player, you begin to think you that you are destined to run bad your whole life.

    The most discouraging thing was that I’d been working really hard on improving my game, and I know that I’m a much better player today than I was in 2009, when I turned my $200 deposit into $5,7K - all while playing those same tournaments.

    Yeah, I had obviously won a bunch of SnGs and even FT’d a few MTTs, but not once since August of last year did I have top-3 finish. Of those 2K fruitless tournaments, I must’ve gone very deep 70 or 80 times (top 2% of the field or better), and still had very little to show for them. I’d botched those opportunities time after time after time in every way you can imagine. A few busts were definitely me donking a stack off, but most were coolers, horrible beats or crucial lost coin flips. One of the most devastating moments was just a couple of weeks ago, when I final-tabled an $11 MTT paying over $4,3K to the winner, and in the second hand of the FT reshoved 21BBs with QQ from the SB after a standard open from the CO. Villain, who barely had me covered, called with AK and won the race. That time I just felt like cashing the fuck out and never playing on Pokerstars again. Bottom line is that for over a year I just could not get a damn thing go my way in those crucial spots. After 30, 40, 50 times in a row of crashing out of that huge $3R 60K Gtd in 28th place or that Daily 40K in 14th, your subconciously tell yourself that folks like gboro780, AJKHoosier1, shaundeeb and others exist only so that we humans can have things to dream about. Things like winning a fucking race with QQ for the chip lead at the final table.

    Thankfully, throughout this suicidal stretch I’ve remained the biggest bankroll nit on the planet, keeping my ABI at around $5, and a few hours ago I pretty much recovered all of that cash bleeding in one hit by shipping a $4.40 turbo for $2,429 (field size = 3,865). Holy shit, what a relief! Don’t laugh, but that is actually my new biggest score, surpassing the previous one by $200. :-) Still, my question remains: how long was your longest stretch of MTTs without a top-3 finish? How did you deal with that drought emotionally? Did it ever make you question your ability to win money at NLHE at all? And lastly, would any bright poker minds be kind enough to glance over my stats on OPR and maybe notice some obvious leaks in my game just based on those numbers?
    Edited By: Pafnutka Oct 31st, 2010 at 10:25 AM
  2. L1verpoolFC L1verpoolFC is offline

    Ireland

    Posts: 271
    Joined: May 08

    Oct 31st, 2010 (10/31/2010 3:37am) in reply to Pafnutka

    5 AND 3/4 YEARS
  3. kodykirlinko kodykirlinko is offline

    Ada, OK
    United States

    Posts: 116
    Joined: Oct 10

    Oct 31st, 2010 (10/31/2010 4:22am) in reply to L1verpoolFC

    I'm on 27 days atm and it feels like its been 14 months.
     
  4. DeaconMike DeaconMike is offline

    Rockaway Beach, MO
    United States

    Posts: 428
    Joined: Nov 06

    Oct 31st, 2010 (10/31/2010 4:28am) in reply to kodykirlinko

    March of 2004, think that's when I joined stars
    might be the reason I rarely play a mtt. lol
  5. PrimedUp PrimedUp is offline

    Posts: 57
    Joined: Jun 09

    Oct 31st, 2010 (10/31/2010 4:33am) in reply to DeaconMike

    im so sick of it right now...i have had monster runs in a wcoop and big rebuys halted by savagely horrid bad beats...i had a top 3 in the $30 omaha 6max yesterday but it was for $400 (and i was down money for the day)...right now i actually want to throw my computer through the window...poker is not a game of skill it is a game of mostly luck...every idiot is a winning player if they get lucky enough...it wouldnt surprise me if i never have a top 3 again given the fact that i cannot win an 80/20 in the final 3 tables ever!! i seriously dont care about the money...i would give it all to charity if i won a big one...fuck i hate this game
  6. sellittojohn sellittojohn is offline

    Susquehanna, PA
    United States

    Posts: 1,626
    Joined: Dec 07

    Oct 31st, 2010 (10/31/2010 5:00am) in reply to PrimedUp

     
    Originally Posted by PrimedUp View Post

    im so sick of it right now...i have had monster runs in a wcoop and big rebuys halted by savagely horrid bad beats...i had a top 3 in the $30 omaha 6max yesterday but it was for $400 (and i was down money for the day)...right now i actually want to throw my computer through the window...poker is not a game of skill it is a game of mostly luck...every idiot is a winning player if they get lucky enough...it wouldnt surprise me if i never have a top 3 again given the fact that i cannot win an 80/20 in the final 3 tables ever!! i seriously dont care about the money...i would give it all to charity if i won a big one...fuck i hate this game

    THIS!!!!
  7. bef99hwk bef99hwk is offline

    Manhattan, KS
    United States

    Posts: 7,332
    Joined: Apr 07

    Oct 31st, 2010 (10/31/2010 5:13am) in reply to sellittojohn

    I got 3rd in a horse tourney...that's been about it for over a month. Really surprised I had that...cuz other than that's it's been prolly 3-4
  8. njw11 njw11 is offline

    Akron, OH
    United States

    Posts: 749
    Joined: Jun 08

    Oct 31st, 2010 (10/31/2010 5:21am) in reply to bef99hwk

    who knows? def been too long before
     
  9. Aaralynn Aaralynn is offline

    Loves Park, IL
    United States

    Posts: 117
    Joined: Sep 08

    Oct 31st, 2010 (10/31/2010 5:25am) in reply to njw11

    2 days
     
  10. Ace10Suted Ace10Suted is offline

    Fort Lauderdale, FL
    United States

    Posts: 680
    Joined: Jun 08

    Oct 31st, 2010 (10/31/2010 5:29am) in reply to Aaralynn

    I went 3.5 years of just playing on stars(rec player, not huge volume) where I didn't hit a top 3. Then I expanded out to FT, Cake, and Absolute, so I could crush some smaller fields and get my confidence back up. After binking a few tiny ones on Cake and AP, I've had a pretty good last week binking a micro Stars tourney for $500 and getting 2nd in a micro Tilt for $220. With an avg buyin of like $3, it's been nice. Makes me feel better and like I am actually playing well, but just have to have some run good too. So far this weekend I'm taking an absolute ass beating by running flushes/straights, and 2 out resucks in the large fields.
  11. chaz78 chaz78 is offline

    Mentor, OH
    United States

    Posts: 336
    Joined: May 07

    Oct 31st, 2010 (10/31/2010 6:39am) in reply to Aaralynn

     
    Originally Posted by Aaralynn View Post

    2 days

    sick brag.........nah just jealous long time for me but if anyone wants to start a thread about bubbling ft's I'm down
     
  12. Pafnutka Pafnutka is offline

    Moscow
    Russian Federation

    Posts: 120
    Joined: Apr 09

    Oct 31st, 2010 (10/31/2010 10:14am) in reply to chaz78

    I guess, the number of days or months you've been on a dry spell does not say as much as the number of MTTs you had to play between your two nice scores. Average field size is also a huge factor, of course. So please mention those numbers as well when telling your story.
    Edited By: Pafnutka Oct 31st, 2010 at 10:23 AM
    Thread Starter
  13. ntanygd760 ntanygd760 is offline

    Fort Drum, NY
    United States

    Posts: 5,494
    Joined: Jul 08

    Oct 31st, 2010 (10/31/2010 10:19am) in reply to Pafnutka

    just looked aug 20th. Im going to go cry in the corner now and then get a top 3 today.
     
  14. TpocketT TpocketT is offline

    Posts: 2,478
    Joined: Jun 07

    Oct 31st, 2010 (10/31/2010 10:29am) in reply to ntanygd760

    Its too depressing to think about. lol
  15. McBain74 McBain74 is offline

    Canada

    Posts: 1,610
    Joined: Jan 10

    Nov 1st, 2010 (11/1/2010 12:20am) in reply to L1verpoolFC

     
    Originally Posted by L1verpoolFC View Post

    5 AND 3/4 YEARS

    won't be long now!
     
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