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Playing MTT live for first time.

By: FrosBros82
Published: Nov 20th, 2009
Well I turned 21 on November 3rd. Needless to say I was way more excited about the possibility of legally gambling than I was about drinking.

Last night I decided to test my luck playing at a casino. Now I have played some limit holdem in Minnesota (18 to gamble there) but never played an mtt. This mtt was a $35.00 buy in with a rebuy option of 1k for every $10.00 and $50.00 max rebuy allowed, also unlimited rebuys until first break. After break you could do an add on up to 4k for $40.00. There were 42 people to start the tournament. 2 tables of 10 and 2 of 11. I have never really seen tables of eleven before, but maybe its more common than Im used to?

Starting stack = 3,500 chips with 25 and 50 blinds. Didn't seem like a bad structure at the time until I realized blinds went up extremely fast. It may have just seemed that way because there was no card shuffler, and the dealer had to shuffle after each hand which seemed like it took forever.

I decided I was going to play pretty tight to start the tournament and feel out my competition. I only played one hand before blinds had went up 2 times (J9ss). With 3 people in I limped on the button with KJ, flop comes KJ9ss. BB checks and a girl second to act fires a bet of 1,200 which was 1/3 of my stack. A guy behind her calls instantly, which didnt really bother me because he had been playing evey hand and I was certain he was on a draw. I decided to shove the remainder of my stack. The girl had me covered (2,200 more to call) and she called as did the guy behind her who had been playing every hand. We all three flipped over our cards. The girl showed K5ss and the other guy showed J8. I didnt like my chances here with all of the draws available. The next card was a queen of hearts. River came a 10 of spades giving the girl a flush and the guy a straight. I was annoyed, but I knew if I would have raised pre I could have just taken down the blinds.

Buy in #2
After rebuying for 5K in chips ($50.00). I again started off tight. It was getting closer to the break and I was just waiting for someone to shove and get a easy double up. With three limpers I looked down and saw AA. I again was on the button, and the blinds were now 200/400. I raised it to 1600 knowing I was going to get action. Sure enough the same two people I was in the previous hand with called. Flop came Q910. The older guy who calls every hand was all in, so it was just me and the girl. She checked to me and I bet 2,500. She thought about it for a while and folded. It was now a showdown with me and the older guy. He flipped over J7. I was really annoyed that he called me with that hand. Turn came a blank and river came an 8 (FML.....). I had about 2k left and was on serious tilt. What didnt help the matter was I heard the old man say "He hasn't played anything in a while so I know he has something good". With 2k left I had 44 and there was a all in before me. I wanted to call really bad, but to be honest I wimped out bad. Turns out I would have won the hand and been to about 7k. After the break I did the add on for 4K. The first hand after break started I had KQ and limped again. Two spots after me a guy went all in. It would have been most of my stack to call... I knew the guy had not played many hands, so his range could be anything. For some reason I put him on a mid pocket pair, and I called. To my displeasure he had KK and I was screwed. I was out one hand later with 810. I wish more than anything I would not have made such a terrible call with KQ. My only excuse could be that I was still on tilt from the previous AA hand. This was still a valuable learning <SPAN>experience</SPAN> for me and I am glad I went. If I could do anything over it would just play more aggressive.

I will be playing at this casino again tonight. Tonight's tournament is a $55.00 MTT with no rebuys. Top 4 get paid and the max they take is 44 people. Whats cool about this tounrament is the winner gets to play in thier winners tournament at the end of May. If you win this tournament in May they pay you into the Main Event at the WSOP and pay for all your other expenses.

Wish me luck.. after my performance last night Im going to need it!

Gl at tables

    Comments

    1. silversculloffline

      Virginia Beach, VA
      United States

      Posts: 163
      Joined: Sep, 08

      (11/22/2009 6:56am)

      Well-written article.

      Your first live tournament sounds a lot like my first live tournament I played at Viejas in California some four years ago. Nothing went right. I was cold-decked, then set mined, then folded a flopped K9 from the blinds to a small raise which flopped into a straight. The coup de' grace was my all-in with pocket jacks, to be called by some dude with Ace-Rag. Of course he rivered an Ace. To make things worse, I proceeded to a 3/6 cash game and lost $150 without winning a hand. Still to this day, the worst day of poker in my life.

      I think it wasn't until my fourth or fifth tournament where I made it into the cash. It's one of the greatest feelings you can have, so stick to it and good luck.
    2. sgildea25offline

      Nashua, NH
      United States

      Posts: 777
      Joined: Jan, 08

      (11/23/2009 9:02am)

      Good article. I hate how some casinos & card rooms fire up the blinds so quick just to get tournies done. It sucks sometimes because you have to catch a hot run early even to have a shot at the win.

      I found that in these small MTT's (90 people or less), aggression works very well. I always make it a goal of mine now to showdown a hand until an all-in pre-flop where I show a rock (AQ+, JJ+) so people now have a TAG image, and then expand on that image throughout the MTT starting to raise with lesser hands going forward.

      I don't want to invest a lot of time just blinding away either. If you bust early, it's the same as busting middle of the pack to me cause you still lose your dough. Get more aggressive at the beginning and try to chip up, then tighten up through the middle, and then loosen up again and try to take advantage of the money bubble and the nits that have caught a hot run of cards to go deep.

      You'll find yourself cashing a lot more often, and you'll find yourself the one putting others at risk deep in MTTs rather than the other way around.

      Good luck!
     

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