1) Buy a SWEET WSOP cap and t-shirt.

2) Before the tournament starts say something like "OMG I've never played a live tournament before this is so exciting!!" Even ask someone at the table to take a picture of you with your cellphone so you can always remember the first live tournament you played. Confirm that you have no idea what is going on at any time of the day.

3) Make sure you put on the bracelet as this is a good tell to know who the fish are. Fish or rookies will be wearing the bracelets, pros/regs will not.

4) Open limp the very first hand, fold to a raise.

5) 10x the very next hand with any two.

6) There, now you are the table's fish to any pro/reg and you are good to go.

7) Profit.


But other than that you should know the standard stuff like eat good food, get a good night's sleep, leave on breaks a few hands early to beat the crowds in the restrooms, etc.

Many people consider the ME to be the softest field available so be patient and pick your spots wisely. There will be people giving away chips and you just need to be there to collect.

GL

Holy **** that's just genius!

I have pulled the "IDK what I'm doing my boyfriend just gave me money" schtick before in live cash. Good times.

Will you be infracting people for outplaying you and banning players for knocking you out?

Any time your name is brought up in the mod forum, pretty much every comment is about how terrible you are as a poster, so maybe it's time you let go of this silly notion that SGT RJ is out to get you and give some thought to toning things down a little (or a lot) and playing nicer.

Consider yourself extremely fortunate that I don't give you an infraction for derailing a thread with crap like this.

If you make the TV table make sure you give ESPN something interesting to mention about you. My buddy didn't come prepared and instead got Norman Chad ripping him for looking like his mom cut his hair

[QUOTE=SGT RJ;33080806]I play in WV, and the tournaments there would be absolutely pointless in terms of preparation. They are essentially turbos (and overpriced for the structure since they are the only game for a couple hour drive in either direction).


I know this is off-topic, but check out Rivers in Pitt, $500 + 50 on final Saturday of every month--best regularly scheduled local tournament I've ever experienced, and I've seen a quite a few all around the country.

Good luck in the ME--I'm sure I'm not alone in being jealous.

my story is so similar to yours! have played in a couple of $1k's and a $1.5k once - made a day 2 once, and busted about 10 from the money. played the ME for the first time last year - was the most fun i've ever had playing poker. i'm strictly a recreational fish with a full time life made it half way through the 2nd level on day 2; got it in with a flush and OESD and didn't hit.

first piece of advice: don't lose set over set - lol. last level of day one lost a 50k pot for about 90% of my stack with set of 22's vs set of 77's. blah.

next: go with your read and try not to think about the money or the fact you're in the freaking main event! i was a total wuss when i laid down pkt KK's to a 3/4pot bet on the river when the board paired jacks. would have been a fine fold if i thought he had it, but i folded cause of being scared. i literally thought to myself "oh man, if i lose i'll be down to 14k in chips and i'm gonna bust on day one; i fold" you can not play scared. which is why i guess this is the softest field every year cause of amateurs like me...

finally: enjoy the experience. it was awesome...

Losing set over set really sucks, especially in the Main Event. If you're a solid player, you should do just fine. Realize that many players will float two streets on you looking for any sign of weakness on your part. If you have a solid hand, play it like its the nuts and you should do fine. Hell, I had a guy move all-in on me with 82o and was 100% confident my A high was the best hand and called him for all my chips and won. No one the rest of the day tried to steal my blinds with that one call (very risky call though ).

I don't think playing scared money will be an issue - while I sometimes have that problem in cash games, I pretty much never have it in tournaments (except maybe near the bubble with a tricky stack size). Once I've paid for the tournament, the money is gone, so I've never had a problem when I've taken shots just playing my game.

Of course there's always a chance that the enormity of the "OMG it's the ME!" will creep in at some point, but in general I don't think it will be an issue.

I feel fortunate that BF forced me to play more cash, which has really improved my deep stack play and hand reading.

But ultimately all I can do is play my game, get the money in good, and hope for the rungood.

Still, solid advice not to play scared.

I had Elliot Smith (http://www.pokerpages.com/player-pro...liot-smith.htm) to my right and I didn't know who he was until after the tournament. He was constantly raising and was hyper-aggressive. I folded pocket 3s in level one after he reraised an UTG raiser, so I just threw my threes away (big mistake in hindsight). The flop came out 3-3-A, turn A, river 8. Of course, the UTG raiser and Elliot both had A-K and I should have had all of their chips. I still have nightmares about this hand.

Anyway, the moral to the story is don't be afraid to call bets early if you don't know table that well. Your stack will be plenty deep and losing 750 to see a flop isn't the end of the world. Funny thing is, if we were in level 2 or 3 and I was in the same situation, I would have called every time because the UTG raiser and Elliot were the two most active players at the table with a wide open range of hands being played, but sadly I didn't know this less than an hour into the tournament.

@OP: Under no circumstances do anything like this:

Be patient. There will be lots of spots to get your money in really good.

In this particular case, I was pretty confident I was right. His better pattern made no sense whatsoever and I surmised he was trying to bluff me off my hand. In this case, I was correct and doubled up. It was a gamble for sure, but my gut told me that it didn't make any sense what he was doing.

I could see having nightmares about that.

me too... dont u get 30k in chips... use em

It was maybe my 10th tournament ever that I'd played in. I literally won a super satellite to get into a $220 tournament, then won that tournament for a seat at the 2010 WSOP ME. Beginners luck. I played for a seat this year and came in 2nd out of 94, then 9th out of 98 in the second one. In the tournament I came in second, I took a horrific bad beat with 4 players remaining that really cost me the tournament. When I came in 9th, I got rivered with 12 players remaining that crippled me.

I'm a vastly improved player from 2 years ago and have done exceptionally well in live tournaments. Hell, over the last 2 months I've won over $5k just in tournaments (I don't play cash) and WILL get back to the ME and will do much better than my first trip, that's for sure