[tikipirate]

I played the Showboat's (Atlantic City) $65 tournament last night; it was my first experience with Casino poker. We had 71 entries, and I went out in 10th place (just 3 short of the money). Other than having my pocket Aces cracked about 3.5 hrs into it, I made out pretty good. The biggest hurddle was actually getting over the gut wrenching feeling of playing in a $65 Casino Torunament with people I had never met.

Play was pretty competitive, not a whole lot of chasing going on, and the loose players went out fairly quickly. It was very different from my home game, and I feel like it was one of the most valuable poker lessons I have experienced thus far.

My only gripe was that the blinds went up very rapidly at the end; you started with T10000, and I went out on the last hand of 5000/10000 blinds after 4.5 hrs; they were going up to 8000/16000 and I would have been all-in the next hand. My open-ended straight draw didn't fill out, and missed the runners to hit my flush; lost to a high card. That's poker.

Here's what I took from the experience:

1) Being nervous to commit chips, and knowing this was "real" poker (as opposed to a $5 home game) really tightened my game up. It improved my starting hand selection and made me play hands I knew I was ahead on more aggressivly. I definately felt like I played the best game of poker I have ever played.

2) I finally had a quiet, zen-like moment of satisfaction when my pocket aces were cracked, and it honestly didn't bother me or send me on tilt. I was dissapointed to say the least, but I was able to just move along, and continue playing without feeling like I had to make it up on the next hand or go after the guy who cracked my aces.

In the end, I wouldn up knocking out two guys and finished in 10th; though not in the money I couldn't have been happier.

The Showboat daily tournaments are well worth the money, and other than one obnoxious female hosts,I can't say anything bad about the room, the staff or the dealers. If you're in AC check it out.

PS How does this compare to other's first casino experience?

[BigKyle]

I also played in a daily tourney at Showboat. Mine was a 5000 chip event with about 90 players. It is a decent tourney structure but the blinds get too high at the end. The average stack was about 25,000 and the blinds were 2,000-4,000, way too high for me to do anything with. I had 19k and went all in from the small blind against a guy who had 14k. I had A5 and he had K2 suited and hit a king. I had outs to a straight and a flush and a higher pair on the river but none came. I busted out then with 78 suited versus two players. 15th out of 90+ so pretty good showing.

The only gripe I have about the whole thing was when I raised UTG to 800 (blinds were 100-200). One caller and the big blind says raise and puts in a total of 1000 chips. I tell the dealer he cant do that and he goes into a longwinded explanation of raises (he is wrong, you can't reraise 600 more than the 200 big blind, another 200). I ended up winning the hand with aces against the other guy's kings but the dealer was very wrong and the floor never made a ruling in the end (he just ruled on the third player's out of turn call of the 200-chip raise).

[Diamond_Don]

I have never had a problem with any staff at the showboat. I have playe in 4 turnaments there and cashed in 2 of them.

[Guma]

Nice showing for your first time in a live event and congratulations! I remember my first time in a live event at a casino. My nerves were shot after 3 hours of play and busting out in 14th of 64, just 3 out of the money (how weird is that).

Did anyone go to the casino with you or did you go alone? Even if they are not playing it is always nice to have someone to go talk to when you get up and take a break from the tables. I don't like going alone, I really prefer playing with a few friends in a live event. This helps me from getting so nervous that I can't even stack chips!

[tikipirate]

Originally Posted by Guma

Nice showing for your first time in a live event and congratulations! I remember my first time in a live event at a casino. My nerves were shot after 3 hours of play and busting out in 14th of 64, just 3 out of the money (how weird is that).

Did anyone go to the casino with you or did you go alone? Even if they are not playing it is always nice to have someone to go talk to when you get up and take a break from the tables. I don't like going alone, I really prefer playing with a few friends in a live event. This helps me from getting so nervous that I can't even stack chips!

I'm hoping that being 3 out of ITM is sign of good things to come for my tournament future, hopefully it has been for yours!.

I did have a couple friends there; one played and went out like 40th or so, after the first break. It did help having him there; he had played tournaments before. After he went out, I talked with a couple older guys on the second break (mainly about the blinds). Most of the guys were pretty friendly and cool.

On a side note; I think the chips were giant inlay paulson. I really like them but they made announcment before we started that anyone caught stealing chips would be like kicked out or something. Obviously CTers have hit them before .