First Offline Tourny Experience

-2222-

-2222-

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I played in my first real tournaments on Friday. They were organised by a local network of poker players....most players were pretty good and some very good. Here are the results:

T1 NLHE $40 R+A. 14 Players (1500 starting chips). Me - 14th!. I was the very first player to bust out. It was probably around the 3rd hand and I had pocket Jacks. I am in middle position. UTG calls, folds around to me, I raise 4 x BB, button calls re-raises to 8 x BB, I cap.
Flop comes 10 6 2 rainbow and I'm all-in. Button takes the longest time concentrating and finally calls. I turn over my Jacks to his Kings. It's all over red rover.

T2 NLHE $50 Freezeout. 18 players (2000 starting chips). Me - 1st. What a turn around. I was determined to just keep playin my own game even though I knew at least 3 or 4 players were better than me. I made it to the bubble play in 4th chip position. 4 places paid. 5th position didn't have enough to post the BB (by that time $1000) but found and beat 2 players in the pot with him so I became short stack. I played all-in with an A6 as I was going to get blinded out. I also found 2 other players in the pot with me. One had KQ, the other KJ. Luckily I found an Ace on the flop and won the hand. I threw away some moderately playable hands but stole 1 or 2 blinds with all-in plays on AX types of hands while the others went about knocking each other out.

All of a sudden I was heads up but very short stacked (90%-10%) against a player that had just come off a win in a 70 player tourney. I folded one or two blinds early on but when I wasn't folding, I was raising. I wanted to show that I would only play good cards. My raises however were all on crap but he folded to every one probably trying to get a pocket pair.

Heads up went about an hour and some and it was a wild ride but I don't think he stopped playin the cards the whole time. Meanwhile, I was playin him not my cards which just didn't improve.

He kept on hangin out for the right cards and I kept on pounding on him anytime he didn't catch anything. Anytime he raised post flop, I folded....not very often.

Anyway, it felt great to be a winner on my first time out and I even ended up winning in the cash game after to boot!

The experience was very different to playing online due to the pace of the game being slower and concentrating on trying to pick up on tells (didn't find any and I don't think I gave any away but I'm not sure).

I'll be back soon enough even though I know that I was pretty luck to win that first night.
 
diabloblanco

diabloblanco

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Good showing 2222, isn't it so much more fun live?
 
-2222-

-2222-

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Thanks Diablo.

Yeah it is more fun...much more so. I found myself having to concentrate a lot harder than in online play which is more routine for me. Because of the network of players ranged from pro to ATM (automatic teller machine) I had to adapt according to who was in the hand a lot more than online but also feel that I can learn from the experienced hands there. Personally, I also loved the chatter and general comraderie of the game. Makes it a real night out.
 
tenbob

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Well done, hope i wont be the last time you play live. I play every monday night and thursday night, great fun win or lose. I find it a huge difference to playing online, much more fun !!!

You will start to pick up tells the more you play, and especially as you get to know some of the players. I play with one regular who basically tells you his hand out loud, but he only does this when he has a monster hand, and the funny thing is that someone always calls his huge bet just to double check !!! Hillarious
 
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5dime

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poker

nothing like real poker against people showing tells and nervousness
 
C

colin_147

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Nice one -2222-

I havent played live yet but I cant wait. I am sure it will be a great experience

BTW, how much did you collect for the 1st place in the $50 freezeout?
 
H8POKER

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Good job on the win. I really enjoy playing live but I also spend alot more money so i usually only go out about once a month. Nice to have the first win behind you, now you know you can play or game and win!
 
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ausamer

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Congrats

Congratulations on your win. I too look forward to playing in a live tourny. I have played at the casino (low stakes - $1-$2 dollar blinds) and like you enjoyed the table talk. It is more enjoyable than online with little interaction except for abuse from opposing players. I look forward to playing in a tourny when I get a chance and can afford it. If anyone reads this - could someone tell me what freezeout is.
 
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colin_147

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ausamer said:
Congratulations on your win. I too look forward to playing in a live tourny. I have played at the casino (low stakes - $1-$2 dollar blinds) and like you enjoyed the table talk. It is more enjoyable than online with little interaction except for abuse from opposing players. I look forward to playing in a tourny when I get a chance and can afford it. If anyone reads this - could someone tell me what freezeout is.
A feezeout? Basically means that once your chips are gone, you are out, rather than being able to buy yourself back in. These are good for the extra prize money but bad cos some players can get a bit crazy early trying to accumalate a nice chip stack, knowing if they get beat they can just re-buy
 
-2222-

-2222-

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colin_147 said:
Nice one -2222-

I havent played live yet but I cant wait. I am sure it will be a great experience

BTW, how much did you collect for the 1st place in the $50 freezeout?
Checked the results on the internet today am now a ranked player in my state (Queensland Australia)...made a mistake....15 players only.

Not Much Colin!...only $270 and they paid 2nd over $200...paid down to fourth and took a 12-15% commission....but there was free beer and food and top class dealers....1 was even world class (about 30-40 hands an hour). They used tournament software so it was all very professional.

In the cash game $50-$200 buy-in, I bought in for $100 and won about $105 so $375 minus tournament buy-ins ($90) = $285 profit for the night.

Now if I won a $50 buy-in tourney on party poker I would expect a heck of a lot more!

I saw some players going back to their wallets to re-load. Even that is a much different feeling compared to pressing the "get more chips" button on the PC.

I will definitely play again....it will be good experience for larger live tournamentsthat I will play in the future and it taught me that I can mix it up a little offline.
 
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