My first live tournie

My first ever live tournie was in Atlantic City at the Wild Wild West. Not the best casino on that strip but they kicked off at a day and time that fit my schedule and 2-3 hour drive from Baltimore.

I decide to play tight and weed out the inevitable donkeys. First blind level, I call in middle position with suited connectors and fold pre-flop to a sizable re-raise (wouldn't have hit anyway).

Second level, I get pockets A's in early position and there's one call to my 4x raise before it gets to the guy to the right of the button. He pushes half of his stack. I'm thinking to myself, "nice way to start my first tournie!" Boy, was I wrong! I go all-in after some acting (deliberating) and the donkey catches a King high straight on the river.

Very next hand, I'm down to 400 out of 10,000 chips and go all-in with Q's. I know. You're already thinking, what are the odds. But wait. Again, pockets J's hit a freakin' King high straight. Especially brutal is the fact that I flopped a set of Q's and thought I was going to triple up (multiple callers) for slightly more than a tenth of the stack I had a mere 5 minutes ago.

In a matter of minutes I played 3 hands in expert fashion only to get my ass handed to me and busted out. Just goes to show LUCK matters a lot!

Live poker = RIGGED

couldnt of said it better myself.

I think the worse part about tournaments like that is the expectations. You play on-line and get everything you want except the cards it is not as bad because you are already home.

You traveled 2 hours for that pain and misery. I just think it shows that poker is still gambling. My most expensive tournament ($325) was done in 3 hands and I traveled 4 hours one way to play in it.

Cards are rigged. No matter what game you play with cards, they are governed by the Card Gods, Poker Gods, Bridge Gods, Old Maid Gods, and the unknown Flying Cards through a Banana Gods.

Truly the bad part about your experience had to be the drive down, and the very quick turnaround.

I'm lucky, I've got a casino bicycle distance away that has live tourneys daily for $10 buy in. You know what? I still haven't gone.

I didn't mean to give the impression that I climbed back in my car with my tail tucked between my legs and drove home. My friend fared a bit better in the tournie than I did and we both ended up alternating between black jack and 1-2 no limit till 4 in the morning.