Won trip to Monte Carlo....Now how do I win it?

[DblDownTrent]

congrats and good luck.

I 2nd the 'try some to calm your nerves' commment. And be agressive after the 1st few rounds.

[Bacchus]

Try to mix up your play a little so that others don't find patterns in your style. Good luck and give us a report when you return!

[SharkBait]

Congrats. I would read Harrington's HOH, Sklansky's TPFAP and Caro's Book of Tells. Caro's book should at least make you conscious of potential tells you might be giving and possibly help you pick up on tells from others. After all that I would reread HOH.

Good luck.

[jackdaniels]

I hope I'm not out of line with this suggestion, but I would - sell the package and use the money for a trip to Vegas where you can play some lower buy in tourneys, have an equally great time and prolly have some cash left over for that 22 year old blond you were after (heck - get 2 of them!)
The truth is that it isn't easy to play live - especially if your only experience with it is a 2-4 limit game some time ago. While you will be playing against a lot of others who have limited live poker experience, many won't and you are at a distinct disadvantage against them.

If you do decide to make the trip - leave a few days early (if at all possible) and get as much live experience as possible. Also, get Caro's book of Tells. It will help you avoid some of the things many poker players do to give away the strength of their hands and their style of play (there is a video of it out there - try to get that).

Also - good luck and have fun!

[sammysusar]

the moneymaker approach(just sitting still and wearing shades)is definitely not a bad approach for a beginner. as long as you dont try any acting and just act the same you should be fine.
The thing that Im bad at more than anything is getting drawn into the table banter and showing cards that i should not have(like showing a bluff for no reason.(

[SharkBait]

Also, consider arriving a day or two early and playing in some live games before the tournament.

[Rushmore]

[ QUOTE ]
Also, consider arriving a day or two early and playing in some live games before the tournament.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is a GREAT idea, and one I cannot believe I failed to think of.

It's such a good goddamned idea that you'd be very, very wrong NOT to do it.

Get a feel for the clay, marvel at the scum that piles up beneath your fingernails. Learn to protect your cards with a chip. Figure out how and when to look at your hole cards. Adjust to the MUCH slower pace of live poker.

Do it.

[Rushmore]

[ QUOTE ]
The thing that Im bad at more than anything is getting drawn into the table banter and showing cards that i should not have(like showing a bluff for no reason.(

[/ QUOTE ]

For God's sake--do NOT make this mistake in your first tournament (or ever, for that matter). These people aren't your buds, they're your competition. Your mortal enemies. You don't need to snarl at them, but if you come back here and tell us that you showed a bunch of hands out of some weird fake comraderie, I'm gonna, well, I...

I don't know WHAT I'll do, but it'll be really bad, I assure you.

Jeez.

[Jonathan]

[ QUOTE ]
The butt of Spain?? [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]



[/ QUOTE ]
That would be a very polite translation, Zaxx.
Down here we don't translate it that way [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Jonathan

[hurlyburly]

I didn't think there was any talking aloud at tables in Europe while cards were in play. Has that changed?

You can also do a little roleplaying at your computer. One thing that helped me while I was figuring things out in sit and gos was to set up a little area on my computer desk with the starting chips, and a stack representing the total chips in play (1500 and 12000 for pokerstars). I then used a chip to cap some random cards representing my hand, then stacked out my bet and divided my purples and blacks accordingly.

You can't go overboard and count out the pot every hand, just move them from the big stack to your stack and back. This helped me immensely at slowing down my decisions (or at least appearing that way).

Before long you'll be putting on your poker face every time you touch your chips and you'll get comfortable with eyeballing a stack for an estimated chip count. You'll know you are doing it right when you see a lot of waiting for response messages but don't autofold.

I never wear sunglasses or hats in a live game, I find that Phil Ivey's constant scanning and deadpan gaze works best for me.

Mostly, just play your best game and good luck! You can act however you want and let your cards speak for you.