How to prepare for your first (major) live event

[SCIROCCO]

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   and then   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

[KarmaDope]

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

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.

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 Lederer 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.