blonde poker forum

I've put major in brackets as it's subjective.

I recently comissioned someone to write a feature on this subject for the magazine I write for and figured it'd be a good subject to discuss on Blonde.

What do you do now that you wished you did when you first played a big tournament or played live for the first time.

My tip would be this:

If you can discover the structure of the tournament beforehand do so.

I'm playing a GUKPT next month and I was planning to prepare with a couple of large whiskies. Is that wrong?

nothing at all Dana, couple of bottles will do ;hattip;

Sounds like great prep to me :)up

Get there early and avoid any stressfull situations prior.

Be relaxed and focused.

Hmmm get plenty of sleep the day before is all i can say

i'm with Dana -- get leathered -- no fear

Take a poker buddy with you and use them as a sounding board when you are finding it difficult or doubting your play. Use them as your personal railing team and get them to watch the table, spotting tells and bluffs etc you may have missed.

always knew poker was a team game, just too drunk to notice ;)

brush up on the rules of breaking tables and the clock would be my change

the first major event i played (£750 freeze in the vic)

i was short shacked with 45+ players left and posted the big blind

i counted my chips and knew i could still pass and still have enough chips to make a double up worth it

sure enough i am dealt crap and i pass the game is paused a talbe broken and the blinds increased

now a guy is moved to my right and puts in a SB i make a small protest to the dealer saying i cant pay the BB twice

i get a shrugg of the shouldersand i let it go thinking i was in error now i dont have enough chips left  and confused

i fold my 72o in the bb and push all in the next hand which was less than a full blind raise and bust


i now know to call the floor over in future when i dont get the right ruling from the dealer and i also know to not be scared to speak out

You used to be scared to speak out?!?!

Don't take your best friend of many years along, don't get steaming drunk the night before, have more than 2 hours sleep, remember to register, don't try to chat up well known female poker player, don't mess yourself the first time you get into a pot with a big 'name player', i could go on, damn it was fun though.

Go out on the lash the night before, prefrably lunchtime eh Dewi. forget to eat or have a cr@p beore the toiurny starts.

then pass every hand till the buffet break..................................Then wash and brush up, and come back to  play properly.

works everytime!!!!

 ;cheerleader; GO DING ;cheerleader; GO DING ;cheerleader;

Just mix whatever it is with RedBull, I was more surprised at the length of the days in large tournaments than anything else. 

My first big tournament was the WPT Paris in 2004, I think, to which I won an online satellite much to the surprise of everyone playing said satellite.  Hours of low-limit cash games online weren't the best prep for a long-clock event - the deep stack and slow pace were real eye-openers.  I had two hours' sleep the night before, I was so nervous, and on getting to the Aviation Club drank three double espressos, was immediately violently sick in what I think was the men's restroom, and spent the first four levels trying not to throw up on Howard Lederer.  The positive side of this was that while you're concentrating on feeling nauseous, you aren't in the least intimidated by the scarier players at the table.

The best thing about these events is the time you get to just obsessively watch the other players, trying to catalogue their play like a little mental poker tracker.  And you have so many chips your options take a very long time to be whittled down into 'push or fold.'  I eventually snuck into Day Two which was a far better result than anyone could have predicted. 

To recap:  Try to sleep beforehand - if I'd had any Nytol I would have taken two at 9pm the day before
Don't load up on caffeine on an empty stomach
Try to make it into the correct restroom
Watch everybody at your table all the time, even through the boring foldy first level

funnily enough... i played my first decentish sized comp at the weekend at the golden sands torquay event. my idea was to get there early and play in  the earlier £100 freezout to find my feet and get used to the surroundings, i was pretty nervous but it soon settled and allthough i played hardly any hands for the first hour the buzz was good. once i started playing hands i felt right at home, all the way into the money!! £140 only £40 profit but a profit none the less, nearly 7 hrs work thats nearly £6 an hour!
the main event had a different feel about it though, suit and ties everywhere and a real buzz before the start, my heart was in my mouth and i had to continually blow on my palms as they were so hot and then i take my seat and find i am sat next to some old chap who thinks he is elvis,which kinda grounds me then my first 2 hands of the day where   Kd Kc and then  Qh Qd i got paid from both and i had nearly doubled my starting stack along with my heart rate, some good hands and 45 minutes later i am cruising at 28k and really getting a feel for the job then wollop i lose 20k on a set of 4's and all sense and feeling in my whole body for about an hour!(i will refrain from telling the hand and showing myself up) when i came to i had 5.5k and had not played a hand for about 2 hours but i managed to keep a lid on it and made it back to 24800 by the end of the day just playing v-tight and getting very lucky on the last hand of the day, day 2 the nerves dissapeared after seeing only 2 flops in as many hours,kept it tight all day until the bubble burst and god knows how but i had cashed again, result!  

my best advice for anyone would probably be valuim or the like, keep your mouth buttoned and pay attention and watch everything.


can't wait for my first (major) event. lol

I have IBS, and my nervous system is shot to hell, so you can imagine how I felt at my first "big" live tourney, and that was only a £20 freezeout (although there were 2 seats to Las Vegas involved). Just don't do what I did. I got to the place early, downed a bottle of orange juice in record time, then started the tourney, and saw my pocket 9's hit a set first hand, only to lose to the moron who couldn't put down pocket jacks, especially after he hit his set on the river. Git. I then spent the next 15 minutes backwards and forwards to the loo with nervous stomach and severe nausea, trying not to puke on my table. (Which, unlike Jen, didn't have Howard (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=578) Lederer (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=578) on it) But, I did learn a lot of things for future reference.

Don't drink alcohol. Water or Red Bull are your friends. Don't touch the coffee.
If you like listening to music, put your headphones in, whilst sitting down and trying to relax. Breathing exercises are useful. Apparently.
Get one of the poker magazines that usually float around the cardrooms. Read it.
Don't be tempted to jump online if there are computer terminals.
Make a phone call. It doesn't matter who to. Just do something to take your mind off the event.
Quietly size up the competition, who looks more nervous than you are? Aim for them.

When you get in there, I find these things are useful to myself but some people might be different.

Get in early. Get your seat, get comfortable (Not everyone's legs will fit under that table, especially 10 handed!). If you have a drink, get a little table to put it on.
Make sure you're comfortable all over. If you keep getting put off by annoying tops, adjust. You can't concentrate otherwise.

As long as you are comfortable and relaxed, you'll have a good time. Don't worry about things like bad beats, or the other players. Settle into your own game first, THEN start to size up the other players.