Well i turned 21 last week, i entered my first tournament at the borgatta (150 +30) and i made a few mistakes i want to point out for other noobs not to have, that i wish i was told.
First of all, i know my Pot Odds, Implied odds, knowing the universal tells, i know how to pick up on betting patterns, so make sure you guys know this stuff first.
My mistakes...
-I was chip leader for over an hour and I didn't realize it.... i made a very aggressive move against the guy probably in 3rd or 4th.... i had pocket J's he had A,K the flop had low cards, no connectors, there was no flush draw he was directly to my right, so i was in a good position, it was only me and him in this hand, no one else called his first raise, which was small compared to my stack... he raised after the flop about 1/4th his stack... i pushed all in, knowing he was chasing something, and going for the blinds and my call to his earlier raise... he thought it over for 1-2 minutes and called, which actually suprised me but i wasnt afraid of this, in my opinion it was a bad call for him since i was playing very tight and everyone at the table was trying to not play me and they all knew i had something good...sure enough he picked up a K on the river...
anyway, what i wish i knew was ALWAYS PAY attention to how much you have!!!, i should have been counting my chips, i didnt realise until than i was the chip leader by far, and he took about 60% of my stack... my mistake going along with that was i didnt look into the tournament enough, a friend told me it paid 1st 3, turns out it was final 8 was the bubble, at that point in the tournament (about 25 people left out of 70 that started) i could have played very tight, and made the bubble...but i got a little to agressive, that kid that called hadnt been at our table to long after he got moved, so he didnt pick up on my false patterns and my attempt at little false tells...so even though i think that hand i played correctly, sometimes its not worth taking big chances when your in such a lead even when you know you have the better hand.
another mistake was when i play games im normally not elbow to elbow, i was afraid to get yelled at for bending the cards so when i looked at them i didnt conceal them as much as i should have.... my final play was 5,6s , flop came a 4 and a 7, i went all in and got called by person to left... who won with King high....my friend that got out earlier on in the tournament said the person to my left called because he saw my cards..
i made a few stupid mistakes as well while playing, stuff i didnt realise you shouldnt do, like when i won a strait against a lady that went all in with 2 pairs i reached in to grab the pot i won i knew i had much more chips than her but i guess they count anyway, and the dealer said not to do that and i got a few laughs so...some embarassing moments, but im happy finishing 15th out of 67 people first time at a casino, a week after turning 21.
i have to say the whole thing was a learning experience, i hope some people read this and learn to do this obvious stuff that wasnt obvious to me..
to sum it up, always have a good idea of where you stand chip wise, and by that i mean actually count your stack, dont just compare stack sizes...as well as maybe read over the DO not's in casino poker that i didnt know :), also when you loose 60-70% of your pot in a hand, keep your head up, i knew i was playing every hand the way i should, but i still got down on myself a little and that lead me to being stupidly agressive when they moved me to a new table shortly after.
Good luck!
-B
PS: Dont jump from tournament play to cash games....bad idea of me as well lol, bought in 200$ 1-2NL, was up maybe 25-30$ 15 minutes in, lots of action on the flop which had some low cards i had AA, guy to my left put me all in, i called not even seeing the straight draw...sure enough he had it, i had my head in tournament play where people would fold low connectors like that.... oh well another lesson learned!
Where are you from by the way?