I just lost my virginity

[lazyant]

Hello, I'm a science/computer geek, I've been studying the game for a while (Harrigton, Slansky, Miller) and playing a bit on the intertubes without real money (I know, I know) and in a couple of house games, both of them I beat but that doesn't mean almost anything (well, that I'm not a complete newbie). I've know I got lots to learn.

Here's my notes on my first experience in a poker tournament I just played.

My objective here was to get some flight hours in live play, have fun and of course, trying to win.

I have to say that I enjoyed playing face to face with other people. It was all friendly and my biggest issues was the small elbow space at the table and how fast some decisions need to be made.
It was also surprisingly tiring.

Overall pretty happy with the overall experience and doing some introspection now on how to improve since I think I played mediocre (no big blunders but a few mistakes and very few good moves).

I was worried that I was going to make some faux pas like string-betting or something but everything was pretty amicable and I will always advertise when I was betting: "call", "raise 600".

I only had time for just second level thought: what I have, what the other may have. No reads or anything, everything very fast for me. Only a couple of times a player thought for a while (less than a minute) before folding to an all-in re-raise.
A couple of times they warned me that the action was to me but I wasn't distracted, just thinking.

About the tourney: pretty standard I think, only the final table got prizes.

Blind structure (going up every 15 minutes): 25/25, 25/50, 50/100, 75/150, 100/200, 150/300, 200/400, 300/600...
Starting with 2,000 in chips. Tables were 9-handed although they could would briefly go down to like 6 players before the tables were re-organized.

I saw about 100 hands and played perhaps a little over 10.
Lasted 2 hours, about 40 of 135 initial players. (top 30%, pretty mediocre but in a SNG I would get my entry fee back or something).

Here are the had details:

-> 1st table. Probably only two players were beginners (or more so than myself).

Limped a couple of hands at the beginning with speculative hands like suited connectors if the pot was already opened, I didn't hit any flop so in a multi-way pot I folded right away to a bet.

- A4o on BB, called min-raise. SB and button see flop which is AJ4 with two clubs, SB calls, I call. Button raises, I go all-in.
I put him on a flush draw, perhaps a pair, not very afraid of trips. Indeed he shows his flush draw, he didn't suck out and I doubled up; this is the only post-flop pot I got in the tourney and the only hand I played well post-flop.

- AQo UTG. Raised 3xBB, got one caller (big stack on BB). We checked it down on rags, he took the pot with pocket 4s. I played this badly, I should have bet at the turn (it was a 2) or at the river.
My only weak excuse here is that I thought my A high might be good here and I've seen that this guy wasn't pushed out of the pot easily so I figured I'd need a decent-sized bet (otherwise he'd call with any pair), about 1/4 of my stack to take it down and I basically chickened out.

- Q6o on SB and I call, BB called (or he min-raised and I called). Flopped trips: QQx rainbow.
He bet like 1/3 of the pot and I should have just call and let him get a free card and another chance to put money in but I raised him 2/3 of the pot and he folded right away.
This raise was actually out of character for me and I'm not sure why I did it, I guess I got impatient. So this was a second mistake.

- 22 on button. Two others on a flop 26J with two spades. Thinking of taking the pot with good bet or re-raising a bet or bet-call.
first player goes all-in (this is the one who liked to do that on flush draw), thinking of calling him but 2nd player (the big stack to my right) calls,
so now I think someone possibly has higher trips and folded. First player shows two spades, second one two 4s (!). There are no spades on turn or river and 2nd player takes the pot.

- I got two great hands almost back-to-back: AK and KK, raised 3xBB, but I get no action. I won the blinds that were still small, I think 100/200 a this point.

-> 2nd table
About 90 players remaining.

I started with 3,400 and with blinds at 100/200 I had 11 times the pot size, slipping dangerously into red zone.
I had enough to perhaps enter one more had and then if I don't win it it will be fold/all-in after that point.

We had a small break somewhere here.

Probably no beginners at this table; people talking about the poker web sites where they play (apparently the small stakes tables at fulltilt are weak) etc.

Getting blinded out. Big stacks are two to my left and one on my right.

These two big stacks on my left were raising a lot, so very hard to try and steal from button or cutoff, and didn't get any half-decent cards on those positions, actually I didn't get any decent cards in this table or the rest of the tournament except the following AT and the last hand.
So entering this table with a smallish stack (there was one like mine and one about to be blinded out) pretty much sealed my fate in the tournament.

People were raising over 1,000 pre-flop and I started to see many all-ins.

- ATs in mid-position with a raiser and caller, I folded after some thought.
With some less stack I would definitively have gone all-in with this hand but with 10x the blinds and a couple of people already in the pot (and two big stacks behind to act) I wasn't so sure.
Calling for about 1/3 of my stack I don't think is a good idea, it would only make sense if I was going to push after the flop no matter what (a stop-and-go all-in).

- 56 clubs on BB. Blinds at 200/400. One players goes all-in for 600, I call the extra 200 since I got excellent odds and he could have anything.
I was surprised nobody else called. He had the same 56 but hearts and we split the pot.

We coloured-up the $25 chips so now we only had 100's and 500's. I didn't need a rack to move the chips, they fit in one hand :-(
I got to see quads in an all-in showdown at this table. I also saw three pair of aces in showdowns in all the tournament.

-> 3rd table: folded a few hands, table got broken again before I could see a flop.
From this point on, almost every other hand somebody would go all-in.

-> 4th table. Blinds were already 300/600, I had 2,400. Only one other player with small stack, some had 40,000 - 60,000.
There were about 40 players left in total.
Most looked like seasoned players. They had customized chip protectors etc.
I had 4 hands before being caught by BB, with 2.5 times the blinds I was going to go all-in with any Ax, pair or K-medium card.
On the third hand I get 33. I go all-in, lady with ultrabig stack calls with A5o, and a 5 hits on the turn and I'm out.

The only hands that I liked how I played besides this one is the all-in call with 56s and the my first all-in where I got my only decent pot.

I think I should have pushed more in the second phase (100/200, 150/300 blinds), I was too passive.

Thanks for reading.