My first casino tournament tomorrow

So, I'm heading to my first casino tourney tomorrow. Heading up to Harrah's to participate in their $30 60-person tournament. I've been playing nothing but bar tournaments and online freerolls up until tomorrow.

Wish me luck!

Good luck to you.
Please let us know how you made out.

Yeah, GL mortis. What's the pay structure and blind structure like?

Will you still be there next Monday ? I land in Vegas 10:15am on the 15th a have my tourney schedule planned out. Try to make the 10k gtd at Binions every Saturday. Make sure you understand the house take in these tournies. A couple of casinos have rebuys and add ons where the rebuy and add on do NOT increase the prize pool but go into a pot that gets split between the dealers. Check out this link,,, Las Vegas Poker Tournament Schedule

best of luck to you tomorrow. i love love love live poker. cant wait for my next try. i hope you leave em out back cryin about what happened.

Pothole said:

Will you still be there next Monday ? I land in Vegas 10:15am on the 15th a have my tourney schedule planned out. Try to make the 10k gtd at Binions every Saturday. Make sure you understand the house take in these tournies. A couple of Casinos have rebuys and add ons where the rebuy and add on do NOT increase the prize pool but go into a pot that gets split between the dealers. Check out this link,,, Las Vegas Poker Tournament Schedule

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I won't be in Vegas.. I'll be playing here at the Harrah's here in Kansas City.

un-diluted said:

Yeah, GL mortis. What's the pay structure and blind structure like?

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I'm not entirely sure.. guess I'll find out when I get there.

$30 x 60 people = $1800... So.. $900-$1000 payout? Hopefully the Top 8 or 9 payout. I really have no idea, though.

Good Luck in the Tourney!

How did you do ? I really want to play at a csino like you mostly online and in bars are the only places I play except for the ocasional home game.I want to see the differece in talent level at casino.

Well, I just got home from the tournament.

60 players. I took 9th. Top 6 paid out :-/

I had a decent stack in my last hand. One player raised, another went all-in, I called on the BB.

I had A/J of hearts. Flop came out A-7-A. It was now between two of us. The other guy went all-in, I called. He had a bit more chips then I did. He flips over A/K, and the low stack flipped over K/J. My Jack never hit.

I went out right before the final table. I KO'ed 4 players.. 2 of them self-proclaimed professionals.

Overall, I think I did alright, even though I didn't cash. Early on, I wasn't hitting any cards, and I made a big mistake and lost almost 2/3 of my chips (we started out with 1500, I got down to 675). Right before my last hand, I had about 9000 chips.

I tend to play better in live games than online games.

That not bad at all and if you think about it, it now costs 30 bucks to take someone to movies so well worth the money, imo.


The fun you had is what matters. Good luck again, take it down this time, lol

I felt pretty good after this tournament, especially after I predicted this one guy's hand, twice. First, I called his raise (2x the blind) with K/9 suited. Flop comes out 5-K-5. I bet, he called. I can't remember what came out next.. something that didn't matter. I checked, He bet big. I said, "Nice Pocket A's" and folded. He showed me his Pocket A's He was trying to pull me in.

The next time, I had K/J on the SB, and he checked his BB. Flop comes out J-10-7, with 2 hearts. I bet 2x the BB. He hesistated, then called. Another heart came out. I checked, he bet big, and said, "Nice flush"... and he showed me his flush.

That boosted my confidence a bit, even though I didn't place.

I'm going to try again on Sunday. $30 60-player tournament at 10am. They also have a wsop tournament in a couple of weeks (which I will not be participating in), and also one in late October (which I'm going to try to participate in).. 2 day tourney - $200 entry fee, winner gets a free seat to the 2009 WSOP Main Event.

stackmeup said:

well just a little quick advice to give you..........people are going to be playing quite different in the live games rather than your online tournaments......so what i suggest is that you start trying to make reads on peoples actions rather than your normal tells for online tournys like betting patterns and things like that, im not saying don't take those into account im just saying since youve never played live tournaments its a good idea to work on your live game reads as well as your other reads. people have all kinds of tells to pick up on, good lucky finding them, and good luck and i hope u get great cards to play with. cya guys

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I never said I've never played a live tournament before. I said I had never played a live tournament at a CASINO before. My first year of playing poker, I only played live tournaments. Bar and home games. My very first live tournament was in January 2007, I won a 30-person bar tournament. That is what got me hooked on poker. The reason why I play better live, is because I think I'm a pretty good people reader.

I also wasn't trying to brag in my last post (well, I guess I was a little).

Anyways.. I have still made more money on poker then I have lost.. which is good. I've spent about $85 total on poker games, and have brought back a total of $193.

Best of luck to you! Nothing better than live play!

Thanks! Yeah, I do prefer live poker over online poker.

i think you did great. anytime you make a final table, thats somethin to shout about. i mean more times than not if you dont make the final table, you have no shot at any money. think of it as how many you beat out. i think thats a good way too look at it. best of luck ot you.

Well... I didn't really make the final table. I got KO'ed right before the move... although the last 9 players made the final table and I took 9th.

Two of us got KO'ed at the same time right before the final table. I had more chips than the other one who got KO'ed, so he took 10th, and I took 9th.

Though, I made up for it last night when I went to a free bar tourney, where the winner won some money ($2 x the number of entrants). There were about 40-50 people at that tourney, and I made the final table there. I took 8th, and 8 people were at the final table, lol.

I went all-in with the short stack with A/8 (my second favorite hand)... I lost to A/J.

I my self like the casino play more rather casino people do bluff but casnio play you can read there bluffs in there face not only with their bet.. good job though at a nine man table the other day finished 2nd last man standing final hand we have smane amount of chips i raise with king jack he pushes all in before the flop i take a while and call he has 6 8 can you bielive it flop came with a 8 no help to me.

I think you did great, especially after loosing almost 2/3rds of your stack early on in the tourney. Obviously you made good plays to come back and finish in the 9th place. It must have hurt to see they other guy flip the K kicker over in your final hand...
Anyhow, I'm sure that your experience gave you the confidence to go back and win it all the way!
I'm saving up to go to Foxwoods Casino soon, I feel inspired...hehe..so i think I'll try out my first $60 tourney
Good luck next time and let us know how it goes!

Yeah, it was pretty painful.. but I can't be mad at it. The one with the best hand pre-flop won the pot.

Mortis said:

Yeah, it was pretty painful.. but I can't be mad at it. The one with the best hand pre-flop won the pot.

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That's the spirit of a true poker player

Congrats on the 9th place finish! Seems like going that far after losing so much of your stack is quite an accomplishment. Just think, next time you'll have some experience under your belt and after this finish a well deserved boost in confidence!

Thanks for the comments everyone! I'm going to try again Sunday morning at Harrah's for another $30 60-player tourney.

Congrats on getting out to your first live brickandmortarcasino tourney. Sorry you missed the money, and so close too...almost better to blast out early than get that close and miss.

I remember how jazzed I was at my first live tourney. I had so much fun that playing online is now more of a pass the time kind of thing. My wife is overjoyed that we do not live in Vegas. We actually considered moving there when her father was still alive.

Better luck in the next one!!!