I played in my first live poker tournament this evening. I have quite a bit of online experience, but this was my first time in a live action tourney in a casino.

The game was no-limit hold 'em, with a $90 buy in. 55 players entered, top 6 got paid. For the first hour and half or two hours, I couldn't get anything going. I was donating my blinds every time around, and eneded up with around half of my original stack of chips at the first break.

After the break, I knew I was in a tight spot. The blinds were large enough that I could only afford to pay the blinds three or four times. I started playing VERY aggressively and winning pots. Next thing I know, I have turned my 2000 chips into 75,000 chips and the lead.

With only four us of left in the tourney, and me in the lead, we negotiated a nice split and left some money in the kitty for us to continue to play for. I ended up finishing in second place, taking home over $1100!  

Congrats!!

Sounds like a fun night.

Excellent.

I've hit $1100 a couple times playing Vegas style solitaire on the computer.

You, sir, are the man!

$1100 is a nice payday, congrats!!!  Just out of curiousity what did first place  pay???

Quoted: $1100 is a nice payday, congrats!!!  Just out of curiousity what did first place  pay???

First place was scheduled to pay $1600. But since we negotiated a split with four of us left, it paid $1300.

At the time we arranged the spilt, the two of us with the highest chip counts had commanding leads over the other two. We decided to guarantee the two us who were clearly in the lead $1100 each, and the two who were behind were guaranteed $700 each. $200 was left for the actual winner to claim.

I was in the lead at the time of the split talks, and finished second. The guy who was in second at the time ended up winning, so it worked out pretty well.

Bump for the day crew because I am still excited about it.

Though not as high stakes -

I was at a cheap and friendly texas hold-em tournament at a friends house.  Six players, 5 dollar buy-in.

At one point I went down to $0.15 -

And I ended up winning all $30.00!

While not impressive in fattening my wallet it was a huge victory to have a 20000% increase in my pot.  

Quoted: Though not as high stakes - I was at a cheap and friendly texas hold-em tournament at a friends house.  Six players, 5 dollar buy-in. At one point I went down to $0.15 - And I ended up winning all $30.00! While not impressive in fattening my wallet it was a huge victory to have a 20000% increase in my pot.

Ahhhh, the beauty of no-limit hold em. All you need is a chip and a chair, and you can win the whole thing.

negotiated a split?

turn in your man card

Quoted: negotiated a split? turn in your man card

Lol. It was tough to do, especially in the chip lead with only four of us left. But if you know no-limit hold 'em at all, you know that I could have very easily finished in fourth place and only gone home with a couple hundred bucks. Since I finshed second, the split actually worked out $50 in my favor.