First Live Tournament: Advice Request

So anyway, a buddy of mine and I are gonna play in a MTT with a buy-in of 50$ that usually gets 200-300 players.

Since this will be my first live MTT, I was wondering if you guys had any advice for me. Ways to conduct myself, what to say, what to do, etc.

First - take your time making decisions. In particular bet-sizing. It should be obvious, but you won't have the benefit of poker software telling you exactly what is in the pot. Plus, there are many more distractions in a live game. So slow down. If in doubt about pot-size or protocol, ask the dealer.

Second, don't be intimidated. A $50 buy-in is not going to attract your area's top professionals. The quality of play will be similar to a low buy-in online tournament.

Third - you asked what to say and how to conduct yourself. Be friendly, polite, and professional, but say as little as possible. However, when it is your turn to act, clearly articulate your intentions to the dealer. "Call". "Raise". "Check". Most of the time it's obvious what you are doing, but it's noisy and distracting in there. Make the dealer's job as easy as possible and avoid unfortunate mistakes Also pay attention to what others say or do. You might just pick up a tell or two. Your brain will remember things, even if you don't.

Fourth - You'll be nervous at the beginning, so play very tight early. I presume you won't be playing with your last $50 - and the idea is to have fun. So ease into it the first few hand. After a few hands, you'll have relaxed and settled in. Then just enjoy yourself, win or lose.

Fifth - when you win a hand, don't provide color commentary about your thought process to the rest of the table. You will sound like an idiot.

Don't show your hands, be friendly, play a bit tight in the early rounds then step it up around the time the antes set in.

Enjoy!

There are a few basic rules to follow, but in a buy-in that cheap a lot of dealers will go over the rules just to make sure everyone is on the same page. Some of the basic rules are to protect your cards, which doesn't just mean making sure nobody else can see them. What that really means is that you have to make sure that they don't accidentally touch any other cards being mucked and making sure you don't do anything that makes the dealer think you're mucking your cards, otherwise your hand can be ruled dead. This is especially important if you're sitting next to the dealer. The easiest way to protect your cards is to put a chip on top of them. Verbal is binding, so the easiest way to avoid confusion is to just say what you're doing before you move your chips. If you say "raise to 1000" you won't get thrown off by being told you moved your chips wrong so your bet is not valid. The 2 common ways this happens is by string betting or by only putting out one chip. If you put out one chip, no matter how much larger than the current bet, it is only a call unless you've already stated a raise. A string bet is when you place a certain amount of chips over the line (the line may be real or imaginary) and then reach back to grab more chips. Only the first set of chips counts as part of the bet unless you've already said what you will be raising to. It'll take a few hands to get in the groove, don't worry about it just get a feel for the game. If you think the other players are picking up how new you are, go along with it, take advantage of the fact you really do know how to play poker, but just don't look like it. You'll make mistakes, but so will everyone else. The most important thing is to have fun. That's a cheap enough tournament that it should be perfect to get the feel for live play.

1) protect your hand (as mentioned above)
2) don't look at your hand until it's your turn to act
3) verbalize all your bets....there are some tricky chip things that can be avoided by just stating clearly what you intend to do.
4) throwing in 1 oversized chip is just a call unless you say something different.
5)be friendly with everyone, but make an extra effort to befriend the players to your immediate right and left (esp your left).
6) don't show your hand until the dealer tells you to. if you call somebody's river bet just wait until they show or they muck.
7) have fun! it's a lot slower paced, but there is A LOT more to pay attention to. As mentioned, $50 really is super low stakes for live. closer to $1 or $2 online. just use it as an experience to learn the mechanics and have fun.

1. Dont be nervous or show youre being nervous.
2. Protect your hand/dont show your hand at all times.
3. Be friendly. Dont be serious. They might tag you a rock.
4. Look for tells. Hide your tells.
Goodluck...