Played my first Real Money tourney last night

Played my first real money tourney last night on Royal Vegas, with the $10 I got for registering.

I played in a $3 NL freezeout, unlimited buy-in for the first hour.

I finished in 201st out of 474, which I know doesnt sound great but I was welll pleased with the way I played and I am sure I will move up and get better the more tourneys I play.

It amazing how many people are calling all-in at the start of the game, just to increase their chip stack early on!

I got lucky on the river when all in on one occasion but got beat with two pair calling all in, lost my last $6,000 chips. Was a bit different to freeroll and a lot different to fun play!

Colin, glad to hear that you're casting your dough upon the real money waters. Brings a whole new dimension to the game when there is legitimate risk/reward involved.

One correction, though, for the record. The definition of "freezeout" is that it is a no rebuy/no add-on tournament. You buy in, start with a specific number of chips and when those are gone, you're out. If people were buying more chips in the first hour after busting out, it wasn't a freezeout.

On a related note, the frenzy of all-in's you endured during the early part of the tournament was for that very reason. Marginal hands get played all-in in an attempt to go on a quick chip rush. If they get busted, they know they can always buy more. The smaller the buy-in/rebuy, the bigger the maniac.

If you're not committed to making several rebuys during the first hour, you just have to sit tight, fold 90% or more of your hands, and wait for the real poker to begin after the first break, when no more rebuys are allowed.

I agree with Rammer...

In re-buy events players will purposely go all-in early with marginal hands all in an effort to pick up chips so they can build a large stack from the beggining and bully people around. This strategy IS a GOOD strategy for re-buy events if you know what you are doing and brought enough $$$ to be able to make the move.