Live game debut

Played my first ever live game yesterday, as Grosvenor Casino, Ramsgate, for a £5 rebuy tourney- been playing online for a year, so though i had to give it a try. Studied up on how to look for tells, how to look at your cards AFTER everyone else has etc - What a waste of time! Usual hand = "i'm all in" "i call" "i call" - K8os v 56s v A2os etc - "Chips!" and repeat. Won a couple early to get from 1,000 to 4,000. Nursed em through all the all in madness, bet 2k of them on top pair which got rivered on a straight chase.

Got to end of rebuy break with 3,000 added on to make 4 but was one of Short Stacks. That didn't last very long as I quickly doubled up, and then became table leader with 40,000. Ended up on final table with probably average stack, won a couple of blinds to get 2nd, then called chip leaders all in with AQs (I had previously raised). He flipped AJs, spiked the J and that was me - £55 and 6th (out of 50 or so), so £45 profit. First prize paid £500, and I would have had 3 times the 2nd placed person had i won hand. It was half past midnight on Monday morning though (and I had a 8.30 meeting, so was keen to get it moving - started at 7, so 6 hours! 45-50 players started with 1,000 chips each - final chip total was 270,000!!!!!!

Standard of play was MUCH lower than online, which didn't make it easier because you really had no idea what you were up against. Generally though, top pair = win. Also had to deal myself with a few cackhanded goes, but working out stack sizes wasn't easy (especially as I wasn't aware of a pink 5,000 chip, until the "Short stack" on my left put 2 of them in for a 10k reraise).

Happy with my play, will give it another go soon (but not a Sunday night, today was a write-off work wise!).

Nice to final table on your first attempt Rob. In fairness though, i would equivate a £5 live re-buy to an online freeroll. I played a €55 re-buy on Friday night, and the re-buy stage is pure donk city, try a few higher buy in freezouts (if you can get one) the quality of play is vastly superior, and the stragegy very different, even with a £20 freezout, and your ahem "skills" should proove much more of an edge.

Good Job on you're first tourney Rob! I'm really going to make an effort to play a few more of these after hearing of your and TB's sucess...

Congrats on the final table, rob
sounds like a super donkfest there; i guess $5 is like micro in relation to casinos.

Like Freak said, i think i'm going to try some live games and see how i hold up.
I found a few University/college freezouts in my area where i'm sure the players are just rich white kids just gettin tipsy and having a night out with the guys (perfect targets )
$40 though, so might be kind of steep for my "BR" (i got about $50 to my name right now lol)

good luck in the future with those tournies, rob

Hey Chuck, $10 buys a lot of Top Ramen!

Rob, good showing--especially for your first live tournament. As soon as I saw that you were playing in the $5 (sorry, no pound key ), I knew it had to be donk time. So what with all the maniacal play, you should be proud that you lasted so long and were able to persevere.

My hubs went to his first live tournament at the local casino today. We've played in the cash games there, but never in the tournaments. It was a $20+$5 re-buy. He allowed for one re-buy and one add-on (which he did). Ended up 3rd out of 70+ players for a take home of about $600! Whee!! Tourney started at 10AM and he got home around 1:30PM--so not bad for 3 hours of work.

It's my turn next Monday...I'll probably go out first.

Way to go! The combo of only 5 pounds and being a rebuy would make it crazy. My one and only live tournament was a $30 rebuy and I hated it. Had never played in a re-buy before and was in for a nasty surprise. Guy to my right went all-in almost every hand and had 8-9 re-buys. I guess thats the strategy in re-buys though is to play like a maniac and get as many chips as you can before the break. Just of note: I posted this somewhere else but it was in an old thread that I don't think anyone looked at. Couple years ago at the wsop Daniel Negreanu played in a $1000 re-buy and bought in 28 times!! Ended up getting a huge stack and came in third for $75000 for a tidy profit $46000. So I guess its not just the donks who play like that. (I read this story in 'The Little Green Book of Poker)

you should be prepared to rebuy several times, but dont look to do it.

It depends on the game, and how you're playing. If you go out because you played like an idiot, then don't rebuy. If you put your money in with the best hand, and still lost, then perhaps a rebuy is worthwhile... alternatively, if you're lucky enough to be playing in a tournament that looks like it'll have a significant overlay (or is a money added tournament), then it's more worthwhile rebuying.
I think I prefer freezeouts on the whole, to avoid that whole freeroll style of play, but I guess the other perspective is that it's juicing the prize pool so any placing gets you a bigger payout.

Nice showing Rob, have 2 questions though, 1,, how much is e5 in us dollars??,,2,, did playing online tourneys help you in any way and did any of the posts on CC help you while you were playing, nice final table,
buck:hello: