Hi all, my roommate just won a ticket to the 2200$ buy in tourny in montreal next week and has never played poker live before, just wanted to ask if there are any glaring newbie mistakes he can avoid thank you all.

1. Vocalize your bets before you actually act. Say "Call", then put in chips. Say "Raise to X" then then put in chips.

2. Don't be afraid to ask the dealer. "Is it my action?", "What is it to call?", "Can I raise to X?", "How much is that all-in?", "How much does Player 2 have behind?"

3. Practice by playing live low-limit cash game before the tournament. If you can find a cheap tournament before the $2200, then play in that for practice.

I think I'm going too for at least a few days. The flight isn't hard to get, but idk about where to stay and how to get to the casino. PM me if you'd like to meet up or maybe coordinate transportation in MTL.

Firstly, Playground is a great place to play live: very comfortable and easy to get used to. Try to enjoy the experience, talk to other players and staff etc.

Also try to stay as relaxed as possible while playing: if you try to hide behind sunglasses and/or a hoodie it won't be fun and will be difficult to keep free of tells, whereas if you just relax and be yourself I personally find those people are actually harder to read.

The $2200 event itself is both deep stacked and with slow 60 minute blind levels. This means you can play for several hours without too much risk (assuming no major coolers etc.). The pace will be so much slower than you're used to online so you may need to fight the urge to "play some hands". Bring you phone charger and have some distractions either on your phone or watching the TV, or the waitresses or something other than fretting over being card dead for an hour (because that will happen).

Good luck - hope to see you at the event!

thank you guys very much

he got in with 2.2mill chips so he has a good starting stack the advice about vocalizing bets and also what Zpaceman said about being himself and relaxing were both very helpful thank you.

The first two bolded questions should say:

How much?

This way, it is obvious that you are asking about another player's bet, and that you are not saying "Call" or "All in."

Re: the third bolded question, it is a player's responsibility to count/estimate the size of another player's stack, not the dealer's.