Hey Andrew,

I just finished playing my 1st tournament and must admit I had a ton of fun playing.

First few hours I was very nervous, made some noobie-mistakes like betting and putting in some more chips half-a-sec later (not valid obv) or just not anouncing it was a raise with a 5k chip so the ruling would be it’s just a call or folding even though the guy on my right hadn’t acted yet.

Fortunatelly I had a super-experienced sicko a few to my left who talked a lot, apparently won some EPT events earlier. He was playing extremly well, but had a great and friendly attitude, told me it’s a great lesson to make all the mistakes now just like pre-school learning, told me how “live-tournaments are just like sex, if you did it once you don’t want to miss it in your life” (I kinda have to agree) and just seemed to enjoy the whole live-play. Except for myself he was the only one who didn’t check his phone once, no ear-plugs, no-hoodie, just pure focus, even when he was not involved in a hand.

After the second break I already felt quite accustomed to the new environment and the live-procedures. I could range most of the players pretty well on their general ability, could get away with quite some stuff as I had been playing pretty tight pre-ante and wasn’t expected to 4bet light/squeeze, two-barral, check-raise river etc. as the noob I was supposed to be. I really feel I waited for great spots and took great advantage of them during the first 7 levels or so. First day had 12 levels, play from 12:00 to midnight. In the later stages I was very card-dead and also made some mistaked and played a little too passive. Nevertheless I made it through the day, even trying to double in a few good spots near the end, as I didn’t want to start day2 with a short stack.

Day2 was pretty difficult, I played 4 levels, almost 4 hours. Starting with an M ~11. The best hands I had were A9s, KQo and 44. I was almost card dead the entire time. Near ITM I made some aggro squeezes in ideal spots (imo), using my to-date tight image, allowing me to stay alive a little longer.

So I finished ~250/1893 for a min-cash.

See my final hand here: …..44/#p65755

So in conclusion I had a fantastic time playing – really looking forward to my next event in 10 days, proud I only missed one hand by accident, didn’t look at my phone once during play and managed to stay focused probably 90% of the time even if I didn’t sleep much/well at all.