I did my first B&M tourney ever recently, and it was at the Taj. It was a $80+20, start with 5000 chips. There were 134 players total in this particular tourney. (Off-topic, I took 16th place).

Payout to the top 18 places. Places 10-18 (second table remaining) all get $139. Payout to the final table varied, with the top place being over $4000.

Because the rounds are pretty quick (starting at 25/50 blinds, each level at 20 minutes), you need to try to get some chips early so that you can afford the large blinds/antes by about the third level.

My strategy was that, after winning some chips to put me at a higher chip count than some others at the table, I played against some players who attempted to limp with less chips than me. Because I had info from their previous hands and fair reads on them, I knew I could bluff/semi-bluff them out of the pot by raising pre-flop, or betting and re-raising them when I could tell they didn't have top pair and were unimproved.

That's what I did to reach the 2nd to final table. (Can't say it'll work again though since it's my first live tourney.) Unfortunately, as other tables were removed and players changed seats, I lost my status of chip-leader at my table and couldn't be as much of a bully. This is what ultimately led to my not reaching the final table, as I in turn was bluffed out of pots that I couldn't afford to risk losing "being in the money" on. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]