First "live" tourney

Played my first live tournament the other night. 36 players bought in, I placed 12th.

I wasn't exactly excited, but not exactly bothered by it either.

Overall I think I did pretty well, I made a couple mistakes that i shouldn't have. Basically still a patience issue, I guess.

Well done Its a great step from online to real life. I wish I could take it again. Absolutely loved it.

Next you want to play in a big tourny for the buzz

When I started playign real life tournies I went to Ireland for a holiday and played in a 270€ Freezeout at the Fitzwilliam Card Club in dublin. Amazing structure and tourny.

100 people entered. top 30ish paid
i came out 40th and got knocked out when i Had KK v JJ all in pre flop rofl. was about 4th in chips too!

But then made a killing in the cash games

I have yet to play my 1st live tournament...I am really afraid that I have too many tells I can't control.

e.g. when I get pocket rockets I get an erection

Waaaayyy tmi!!!!

The only live tourny i ever played was really tough, we started with 5K in chips and blinds started at 100/200. there were about 50 of us and blinds went up every half hour or so im not sure. I just felt like the blinds were not small enough to get in a groove (of folding) and i was shortstacked in no time. i rebought but still placed way out of the money.

thats a ridiculous structure. Never play in that again

25 times the big blind at the start of an MTT is ridiculous. Taking away a lot of the long term skill statistics and relying a lot on short term hands etc...

for a good decent structured live tourny an average would be something like:
8000 starting stack
blinds 25/50
up every 30 mins.

That'd be tolerable as long as there was the 150/300 and 300/600.

Live tourney's are based around there blinds...The whole point in them is to get u in n out n put that buck in there pocket.NEXT..LOL...It's tru..But i play alot cause i think i have overcome the blinds problem most of the time...watch how many decks they use usually 2(rednbluedeck)but someplaces just 1...If u watch the dealer he only shuffles about 5 times...U always wanna watch how the cards come out(What cards tend to come out alot)I always watch this,cause when u see em 1or2times in like 3 hands n u get something to play along w/ those cards 6 hands later as long as the dealer has not washed the cards alot of the time they usually come out...It works for me..I play low runners alot in Live games and catch if i c what likes to come out... 1 problem is the blind thing scares alot of people and they like to go all-in preflop...So patience can only go so far w/ me...I pick my spots to play n pull it out of my a** . I do get screwed sometimes but that is just because i get out drawn by some1 who usually catchs the river...These tips may sound stupid but every1 has their own technic...So don't sweat mine...I usually get the bankroll, so i'm sharing valuable info.THX...Brandon

Good tips Brandom. I'm constantly struggling to make money from the +EV situations in fast structured tournaments! Its obvious you need to take advantage of aggressive all in's but that might mean winnin 5 or 6 70/30's to you.. but as the 70/30 statistic shows your unlikely to win everyone thus knocking you out! lol!

I live bicycle distance from the Crystal Park casino, and motor bike distance from the Bicycle Club. Both offer small tourneys. One is a rebuy tourney. Rebuy in a tourney almosts defeats the whole notion of the tourney. In my mind, a tourney is providing the most even playing field possible. Rebuy smacks of the deep pockets that have kept me away from ring tables.

I just peddled over to the casino, picked up Card Player, and Poker Player, and almost stayed for the tourney. It will be my first live tourney. Today however, I have either played piss poor, or gotten rotten cards (78 down cards, 13 face cards today), so I decided that today was not the day.
At some point I will have to test my mettle. for now I get to choose my spot.

its true the rebuys were a bummer.

in that tourny it seemed like if you didnt double up before the 2nd round u were screwed without an add on. maybe i went into it thinking i could double up quick enough to survive but since i only planned on 1 rebuy i didnt give myself enough ammunition.