"What? I can't go all-in?" - Limit Hold Em' Poker Tournament

Played in my first LIMIT hold em' tournament this morning at Bay 101 with 68 players. $80 dollar entry with $60 dollar rebuy. I went with three other co-workers and we made a pack that if any of us won the big cash places, we would split the winnings.

I didn't start the day too good, I slept at 3:30am and woke up at 7am. So, I really wasn't in the poker mood. I would have backed out of this, but I was the one who got everyone hyped up for the tournament. But, once we got there... I was excited to play. I love tournaments, but still had doubts about what to do in this limit game.

I played aggressively and two-three bet a lot. I took some pots and took two bad beats on the river. I was the first one to rebuy at my table. My rebuy didn't take long to get short stacked, but I managed to climb up to chip leader at my table for awhile by being aggressive.

Note to self: Aggressive small ball bets work great in early rounds, but also play a solid game to chip up. Aggression small ball also works well in later rounds when blinds are higher. You bet to see "cheap" draws while adding the semi-bluffs.

My best pot was when a aggressive little blind player raised my blinds, and I called with K2 from the big blind. (I think everyone got out of the hand because him and I were the most aggressive at the table).

Flop came out 2 7 9. He bets outs. I two bet. He calls.

Turn comes out a 3. He checks. I bet out. He says "I know I have the best hand" and mucks.

But I bluffed at two wrong times and it cost me, one with miss flush draw and another with a missed straight. I finally had to push with pocket 3's and ran into pocket aces.

Placed in 30th place, but one of my co-workers got 4th place ($680 dollars). He gave us back $100 each and treated us to dim sum afterwards. Good deal!

All in all, I'm not a good limit player, but it was fun. I may try it again someday. I feel I was too aggressive in some pots where I had no outs and totally threw my small-ball strategy out the window, because I thought it wouldn't be too useful in limit poker, but I was wrong. When I think back, smallball would have worked even better in this tournament because of how many ppls see the flop and call you down to the river.

So Next time, watch out.