Does Luck play a too bigger part??

[timnicebutdim]

Interested to see what peoples views are on skill versus luck in poker tournements? I have started to lose faith and am going down the 'luck' route!!
After having a long losing streak in SNG's, I decided to have a go at a large entry $10 tournament on TITAN.(why not!!) AT 7.30pm a couple of nights ago, I sat down with 1100 people. $2300 1st prize and paying down to 150 places for $12. I was very pleased with my play and at various stages I was in the top 30. After 2 hours I was in the money for $12. The next hour and there was only 86 people left and I was sitting at about 60th.
In the next hour I new I had to start pushing with strong startring hands and I got myself up to 40th with some good positional play, even made some good laydowns when some tight players bet big and when called showed AA or KK.
Anyway I was feeling good about my play. As we were approaching the 4th hour and I was positioned in the high 30's, I made a move with AQ diamonds from an early position. Everyone folded except the BB who thought for a while and then went all in. He had me covered but not by a huge amount. 18,000 chips (me), 27,000 chips him (aprox). When his cards got turned over he had 10 3 spades!!!!!!! A very strange move by anyones standards. With just 9,000 chips left and the blinds at 1000/500 with a 100 ante, he would have been very low stacked and dead last.

How I laughed when the flop came down. 3 f***ing spades and he hit his straight and I was out in 56th place!! Boy was I annoyed.

My point of this long winded ramble, is, in the end I was out because my opponent went mad and the poker Gods rewarded him. What other explanation is there for calling with 10 3, even if they were suited??? If I had lost to a small pair or A 10 or A J, I would have been annoyed, but I would have understood me opponents move. But 10 3 !!

I played good poker and it was luck that cost me a higher finish.

So, for those of you still reading, what are your views on Luck winning the day, or having a huge helping hand?

[MRNASTY1]

Well to tell you the truth it sounds to me, and i`m probably wrong, but maybe you were playing in SNG`s that were above your BR and possibly played to tight to win. You then got fed up and had the F#%& IT attitude, loosened up and when you played this MTT you had decent results.

As for the luck part I believe not everyone who plays in a MTT are not shooting for 1st, they are happy to double or triple the buy`in. They then start playing it like a damn freeroll after they are ITM. And yes, THEY GET SO DAMN LUCKY IT MAKES YOU WANT TO PUNISH YOUR MONITOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So with that said it is harder in my opinion to play in the later portions of ITM when those who are happy with cashing go BEZERK.

Just my opinion. Hope you won enough to grind it back out in the SNG`s with better results.

[Tomturkey46]

The person playing 10-3 suited had a good reason. HE WAS SUITED!!!!!

The Turkey

[timnicebutdim]

MRNASTY, I make sure I play within my bankroll. Have not gone bust in over 2 years, so must be doing OK, just not making as much as I would like to!! I cashed in £400 a few months ago and have come back down from $20 SNG's to $10's and even $5's. I never play too tight, maybe a tad to aggressive. The last few months I have gone from slowly accumilating money to slowly losing it. However my luck has changed over the last week and I have been in the money again. I have no problems when I make a mistake and go out beaten by a better hand or player, it is just the hands when I lose to a bad call from another player that really annoy me and my observations of late brought me to the conclusion that 'luck' plays a bigger part than it should do! But hey I suppose we all new that from the start!! Still enjoyed the big tourney though, It is just a shame that I went out to a 10 3!! All experience though. Thanks for your reply.

Mr Turkey, Thanks for your reply as well. I know I wouldnt risk 2/3rds of my chips with 10 3 suited after an all in raise, even in a 6 seater SNG let alone a MTT that I had just put nearly 4hours of my time into!! If you miss your flush what have you got...10 high, with little chance of getting a straight. Even if you hit your flush, you risk being beaten by a bigger flush!! Like MRNASTY said, maybe he was happy with the fact that he had already won $35!! Who knows..............Not Me !!

[NoWuckingFurries]

There can be a whole list of reasons why somebody does something apparently illogical, I've found recently that if I'm playing Age Of Wonders: Shadow Magic and go to click the End Turn button just as Poker Stars pops up for me to make a decision, I end up clicking the min raise button! So I'm not necessarily a donkey, just poker isn't really exciting enough for me to play poker and do nothing else at the same time.

Also it's quite possible to make one or two mistakes in four hours of playing...

[pothole]

Luck plays a much bigger role in online poker than you may think. The OP said the villain thought for a while before calling, if he had clicked call 1/16 of a second earlier or later, the flop would have been entirely different due to the fact that the rng is constantly shuffling the remaining cards in the deck until the last player to act clicks an instruction, be it check call raise, the shuffle stops and the streets are dealt. When you consider that this is how a poker rng works, you understand that luck plays a huge part in online poker. Of course you still need a complete tool to call an all in with 10 3 pre flop, but you'll always get them.

[NoWuckingFurries]

What if the delay was not down to prolonged thinking, but actually due to the cat jumping off his lap and knocking over his coffee?