OK folks...help me out here.
I have been playing online poker since 2008 and achieve 16%-19% ITM every year in tournaments (over almost 7,000 games) and between 11%-12% finishes in the top 10% of the field overall. However, despite achieving consistent results, the top 5% finishes and final tables eludes me. Over this time and games, I have only reached the final table 4 times (with field greater than 1,000 players) with my highest being 3rd.
Now, I understand playing more games does not mean I MUST get to the final tables more often - there is a skill element involved with poker not just mathematical distributions. Thus, over the years I have adopted many suggestions made by other players - such as playing a wider range of cards especially if I am in late position and first to act, playing more aggressively with premium hole cards especially when in position and using pot odds to make bets/calls rather than by instinct. I have read countless books and poker strategy materials as well spent a lot of time on forums seeing what others are discussing and how they are playing.
Everything I learnt and applied had their share of successes and failures (the greatest failure being adopting the playing style of Gus Hansen based on his book :f_biggrin:) but no matter what I do, my ITM results remain the same and my desire for more frequent top finishes still remains beyond my grasp.
As a more specific issue, as many hands from the middle of the tournament onwards tend to gravitate towards going all-in (if I am short stacked) or calling a short stack all-in I find pot odd and position strategies doesn't help that much. There is only really 1 decision pre-flop and leave the rest to the poker gods. I am finding that in most cases no matter what I do, I cannot win. Go into a all-in hand ahead and get suckered or be behind and miss my cards.
Variance is a huge part of the game and I think I have played enough games and long enough to believe variance seems to be skewered for me - and not in my favor. I am not griping about losing - this isn't the purpose of the thread.
I am posting with the hope that others can share with me their general strategies in the middle/late portion of the tournaments that may improve my tournament results. How to find that edge when so many hands tend to be all ins shoves.
Thanking you in advance for taking the time to read my post and my appreciation if you could share your thoughts.
