nervousness and self-consciousness at live table

[leatangclan]

Like you, I used to get nervous playing live. I don't anymore because I played a lot since I started playing poker a couple of years ago. In fact, I really like playing live with real poker chips and cards. And I enjoy watching people and try to look for tells.

So that maybe something you may want to experiment with. Think of the fun things you would have in live situations that you would not have online. They tell you to not look at your cards first but look at everyone else looking at their cards to detect tells. That never worked for me. In fact, I don't want to give off tells looking at my cards. So I would look at my cards when everyone is busy looking at their cards. This gives me time to think about what I want to do when it's time for me to bet - rather than look and think when everyone is looking at you; talk about pressure right?

This may or may not be a good idea. Another thing you may want to do is play some cash games before the tourny. This will serve as a "warm up"? The problem with that is if you lose that might throw your game off. I would say just enjoy the live game experience and you should be fine.