I've played a few live tournaments at friends houses. I am hosting my first tournament in a couple weeks.
But on Saturday I played in my first casino tournament. It was $25 + $5 buyin. There were 56 players spread out over 6 tables. Blinds increased every 15 minutes starting at $25/50. Starting chips were $2200.
When it was down to 3 tables I was hovering around 8 big blinds in the small blind. I figured I needed to make a move or I would be blinded out when the blinds increased. I had A5s and it folded to me. I raised it 3 bets. The big blind re-raised me all in. DOH! I had him covered with two big blinds left over.
The big blind was an old Asian guy - don't take this the wrong way, but Old Asian guys are to be feared at the casinos. They are usually good players. Not sure why - but they are good gamblers most times.
So I figured I was pot committed so I called him. He had AK. I hit my Ace, but obviously that did me no good.
That left me with two big blinds.
We then went on break for ten minutes.
When we came back me and one other person were the short-stack with two chips. I folded until I was on the button. I got dealt AQs and put them all in. I got 3 callers. DOH!
I would have been happy with stealing the blinds or getting heads up. Not too happy with a four way pot.
Luckily I hit trips and immediately became the chip leader. Wow.
From short-stack to chip leader.
I managed to make it to the final table. Everyone at the final table got paid.
I was a short-stack in no time with the blinds increasing.
Luckily other two players got taken out before I did.
I pushed all in once and actually stole the blinds.
My last hand I pushed all in and got one caller - the other short-stack at the table. I had Ax to his 58s. He hit is 8 on the river! Doh again!
All in all I was very happy with my tournament. I played TAG the whole time.
I made $68 going out in 7th place. I tipped the dealer $10...in retrospect I think I should have only tipped (Prize-Buy-In) X 10% = $3.8. I gave him over 26% of my profits!
Such a rookie.
I also played a couple hours at the $1/$2 cash table. Maximum buy-in was 50 Big Blinds or $100.
I did fine - very TAG. I gained lots of respect at the table. Most hands I raised or re-raised pre flop got me to heads up. If I bet the flop again, it always got a fold. It seemed I only was playing 10% or less of the time.
I walked away with $12. I had a couple big pots and tipped the dealer $10.
Moral of the story - I tipped almost half of my profits away.
The way I see it - if I have to deal with variance, why shouldn't the dealers? Next time I won't be tipping based on my winning a big pot. I may win $80 and lose it the next hand.
Counting my $10 to tips to the dealers - I made $22 or 5.5 Big Bets. I played for 2.5 hours so that equals 2.2 Big Bets per hour. That is decent for my first run at the cash tables.
I just need to work out my tipping strategy. If I triple or quadruple my stack in a single pot at $1/$2 NL, then I might tip accordingly - but if I just add 25% to my stake in a good pot - that is not a good reason to tip the dealer.
I need to work on this because those tips equaled half my profits!
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