What am i doing wrong??

[acesdazzler]

Hello all i am new to this forum - thought it was about tie i posted on here having been at William Hills since May.
At the moment i only usually play the small £2.25 entry tournaments whilst i am learning the game and becoming proficient at winning some money! The thing is in these tournaments i am consistent enough to reach say the top 50 and win my money back regularly - however i need to make the step up to winning and reaching the final tables! Last nihgt i managed a credible 13th place out of 350 and was reasonably pleased - however whenever i call with what is the best hand (as it turns out) i regularly get beat - mostly on the river and taken out of the tournament!
Last night i had 20, 000 chips left which was a medium stack - everyone folded around to the chip leader who raised - and i had JQ off suit. he had called previously and raised on small pairs - so i made the decision (right or wrong) to go all in. I was in position and he thought about it and then called me - he had pair of 9's as i had guessed. Now the flop hit 85Q putting me in front and then low and behold a nine came out on the river - and i was gutted!
Was it the wrong decision or was i just unlucky? If it was unlucky then it happens pretty regularly - the river seems to always beat me!
To make the step up do i need to be more aggressive - or just wait for the big hands and play them aggressively???

[winkie]

Hi Aces... and welcome to blonde...!

I would say that if you're around average chips, then you should find a better spot to get your chips into a pot. JQ off is not a very strong hand and you certainly don't want to take on one of the chip leaders with it.

For me, I would have passed the hand.

[AdamM]

welcome.

Yeah, I'd say the same. Q,J is a rotton hand and you can't be sticking it in on that and expect to find yourself even money very often, let alone ahead. I gather you're quite new to the game so I would suggest looking for some good enrty level books and looking at your hand selection. you said in your post something about 'calling with the best hand'  and there's also the thing above where you re-raised with Q,J. basically I'd suggest a good beginner strategy would be to be raising only with top hands and pass almost everything else. Though I hate to say it, Phil Helmuth has some good advice to give on this. basically top 10 hands (A,K, AQ suted and pairs down to about 7,7) ditch pretty much everything else. you might limp with lower pairs and suited Aces but you need to hit flops damn hard with them. In time you can play all sorts of hands from various positions.

despite some of the discussions on the board recently, if you want to post some specific hands you have problems with, there's plenty of experienced players here that'd be happy to help deconstruct an examine them with you.

again, welcome to blonde

[TightEnd]

yes, Welcome to Blonde

Adam said it well, if in doubt, ask!


To answer your other question, yes there does tend to come a point in tiournaments when you need to shift up the gears to get beyond the bubble into the proper money. Much of this depends on when you have to do it, depending on your stack size relative to average etc, your position on the table relative to other stacks, your table image and that of your opponents

Please post your issues with this sort of stuff...you'll find you will get a number of responses

[ACE2M]

Without knowing what he raised in relation to your stack etc you may wish to call with these hands and bet if you hit. You will find that people will play mid pairs like they are aces late on, hence won't lay them down to a re raise pre flop but if he sees an overcard on the board and you move in he may well fold. Try calling and if you hit the flop then move in. You may want to move in anyway regardless of what the flop brings but you will need some knowledge of what he/she raises with and if the board looks dangerous it's probably best to fold to a raise..

[acesdazzler]

Thanks guys for the responses and the welcome - you are right about needing to read up on the basics - i haven't picked up a poker book in my life! There are none at my local library unfortunately. I will have to buy them over the net. Thinking about it - my stack wasn't middleish - i was 13th out of 18th - dunno if that makes the call a little more justified or not. However i see your points - the JQ was a poor hand to go all in with - but it would have benn 5k to call and i figured that if i was going to do it i may as well go all in (wrongly it now seems). I think i am a reasonable reader of players and summised correctly he had a middleish pair - however he got lucky and i didn't.
There are many other examples of me getting beaten when i have been the clear favourite whcih dissapoints me - recently i had AK and he had A5 both all in and the cards bring nothing until the river when a five appears winning him the hand - and that is a sickener!
it just seems like when i make the right call i get rained on at least 75% of the time - but i feel my luck must change sooner rather than later.
I will continue to use this excellent forum that is for sure!