My First NL Hold'em Tournament

[Dewey]

Hi All,

This is my first post on this site.

I'm playing in my first casino-based poker tournament next week. It will be the $500 buy-in NL Hold'em at the Trump Taj Mahal.

I'm seeking advice in two areas:
1) general info on tournaments: Like Dos and Don'ts, how are bathroom breaks handled, and general proper etiquette.

2) I recently came across Darse's NL Hold'em Tournament Primer. It seems like a pretty good strategy for me to follow. Any thoughts on this?

Thanks in Advance.

[Al_Capone_Junior]

You've never played in a casino at all, right? I certainly hope you've played online, because the $500 tourney at the taj is certainly not the one i'd recommend for your first live tourney. I also hope you have plenty of money to burn because that's a toughie for your first.

There are scheduled breaks, but I'd go first, and don't sit there drinking one beverage after another, especially not if they are caffeinated. You may be sitting there up to two hours with no break, and if you're gone, you still pay your blinds anyway.

#1 rule for casinos: protect your hand.

I don't know about Darse's primer, so I have no comment on it. The fact I've never heard of it makes me skeptical as to it's value tho.

al

[Dewey]

Al,

Thanks for you comments.

Here is the link to Darse's Primer on NL Hold'em Tournaments:

http://www.cs.ualberta.ca/~darse/Papers/no-limit-tnmt-primer.html

I'd like to hear what you think of it.

Here's my Hold'em experience:
-play in a weekly local $5/$10 Hold'em game. We recently started a tournament format.
-play online at paradise in their NL tournaments in the $50 and $100 games. I've played in about 25 now: 1 first, 2 seconds, and 3 thirds.
-practice on Wilson's Turbo Hold'em software
-read Ken Warren's book many times. Recently started reading some of S&Ms books (hence finding this site)

Regards,

[Al_Capone_Junior]

After reading the essay on the link, it's not bad at all. A good summary of basic no limit tourney strategy. I'm not going to pick it apart paragraph by paragraph, but I liked the essay.

You had more experience than I thought. Hope you won.

al