I played in my first tournament this past Thursday at Grand Casino in Biloxi. I did my homework, studying all the information on this Web site and when push came to shove, I had total brain shed. First time out, I think I'd have been better off going with dumb, blind luck. I didn't rebuy for the extra $10 because I felt the $20 for my one round was a good education of what I need to practice for the next time I enter one of these -- probably not for a few more months. My biggest problem was not being able to look at my opponents' chips and immediately determine the cash position of all the players, and also the total of the cards. So, I plan to get some similarly colored chips and leave piles of them strategically placed throughout the house and practice looking at them and knowing the total. Ditto with hands. Don't know who won, didn't stick around, but I'll be back! Best wishes, R
Be Sure You Practice With Solid Colored Chips I use the same practice method you're using. But I made the mistake of buying chips with hash marks on the sides. After reading some message threads on this topic I bought some solid colored chips. A stack of solid colored ones is more difficult to size up, but that's the kind of chips they use in tournaments. It may be just me, but with the striped chips I couldn't stop myself from depending on the hash marks to size up the chip stacks. One useful thing is that the height of a stack of ten chips is almost exactly the same as the diameter, so viewed from the side it looks almost like a perfect square.
Get the Rebuy Jadester, Next time get the Rebuy. It is a great overlay (the tournament is an overlay even with the rebuy). This means even if you have no clue about what is going on, you get paid well for being lucky. I've been going to this tournament for years, and it is one of the best on the coast, for the money.
Thank you Many thanks Jim & MS for your advice. I was going to do the rebuy but simply felt a bit overwhelmed and wanted to let everything just sink in. I probably won't play in another one for a couple months but when I do you can be sure I will have practiced counting solid chips (have to buy some first!) and I will certainly do the rebuy -- who knows, maybe it won't be necessary. Best wishes, R
They do a countdown at five hands at the Grand, so I don't really find chip counting all that critical there. I'd worry more about getting experience in at the table which will eventually lead to calmer nerves and better play. My biggest problem is keeping all the rules together for each tournament. I lost a round at the Grand last month because I thought we were playing 21 hands instead of 20. At the end of hand 20 I started sizing up my last bet when the dealer started counting my chips. I was like, what the hell, "game's over buddy". Oh well. At another, on the last hand, I wanted red chips from the dealer to make a very precise bet. The dealer didn't want to give them (apparently they had been instructed not to give them out). I argued, called the floor, eventually got the red chips, then in the confusion didn't make the bet I was trying to all along and lost the round due to the error. Anyway, moral is, experience and calm nerves are far more important then being a good chip counter.
