Are You Playing Too Many Hands Without Realizing It?

One of the biggest leaks I’ve noticed (and worked on myself) is playing too many hands, especially from early positions. It feels harmless in the moment—calling with suited connectors or weak aces—but over time it quietly drains your stack.
What helped me improve was tightening up my opening ranges and being more disciplined preflop. I started asking myself: “Would I still play this hand if I was out of position against strong opponents?” If the answer is no, it’s usually a fold.

I'm still not sure how much to adjust for mystery bounties and dead blinds from people sitting out in MTTs

I read an article talking about what the solvers do when you introduce dead money into the pot and they go crazy with opening nearly any 2 and 3 betting a huge range. It takes multiple re-calibrations of ranges before it makes any sense. Also I don't really know how much GTO applies to small stakes tournies...

A quality post talking technically about poker.
Finally someone brought something to help us evolve.
I also noticed this leak in my game and have been fighting against it ever since. Adjusting my game to reduce the number of hands played is one of my biggest goals right now.
I have been following some simple rules for this. One of them is:
If I don't have the courage to call all-in with that hand, it's usually not a good hand to play in early positions.

I think this happens frequently, especially in fast formats like Rush.
As the pace is so fast, it's easy to start playing more hands without thinking too much. I've noticed that sometimes I get involved in situations out of pure habit, not because it's the best decision.
Lately, I've been trying to be more aware of this and slow down a bit, even in fast games.

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📝 POST (PORTUGUESE)​

Yeah the problem playing in early positions is all those players acting behind us, so unless my hand can take a raise then I just fold here. Limping and folding to a raise is just bad. Even if we open for a raise and it gets 3 bet, flatting that 3 bet from out of position is a horrible spot to be in, now the pot is big and we are OOP yikes.