Thought this would be an interesting thread to start. Please feel free to add your advice or comment on mine:

1. Be careful when looking at your cards. People will try to sneak a peek.

2. If you play in a ring game and make a lot of $$, you cannot get up and cash in some of your chips. They want you to keep all of your winnings out there in front of you. I found this one out the hard way!

3. Be sure you understand and are comfortable with the betting maximums and order. It's easy on-line since they will tell you what you can bet and in what increments. Not so in a live game and it's a real easy way to look like an amateur.

4. Know your chip counts and those of your opponents. As with #3, it's trickier in a live game.

5. Watch the dealer! They make mistakes - forget to move a button, chop the pot wrong, take too high of a rake or even award the pot to the wrong person. Again, not an issue on-line but it could cost you some money in a live game.

If someone acts like they fold, but don't say "fold", do not put your hand in the muck. You will lose.

Start out playing the smaller ring games when u go to the casino. the 3/6 limit, 5/10 limit, 1/2 no limit. Don't get too crazy. Only bring a certain amount with u into the poker room as well. Getting stuck a couple of hundred is a whole lot better than getting stuck 2k. Start small and master the limits and progress slowly. No matter how much online expierence u have it does in no way simulate what it is like sitting down at a table.

Put a chip or some other weight on your hole cards to protect them in case someone throws cards at yours.

If you are raising, you can not make several trips back to your stack. If you were raising 200 for example, you can't put 100 up, then come back to your stack for another 100. The exception to this, is if you say, "i raise", then you can take as many trips back and forth between your stack and your raise.

The dealer will also pick up your cards and throw them in the muck if you don't protect them.

Great Topic....It's been a while, but here's what I remember to be the most challenging, some of which have already been mentioned:

* Always take the same amount of time when looking at your hole cards for the first time. A lot of players that haven't played much live action will give away their hand by how long it takes them to check their hand. Your natural reaction when you see a great starting hand is to immediately go for the chips, ans inversely you might stare at a marginal hand a bit too long before taking action. I can't tell you how many times I see this in tournaments where there are a lot of online qualifiers.

* Get in the habit of throwing multiple chips out to make your bet, as opposed to a large single chip. If you don't verbally declare your raise, your large chip will simply be treated as a call. Example: The bet is $2000 to you, and you intend to raise to $5000. You say nothing, and take one $5000 chip and throw it into the pot. The dealer will immediately look at you like your an idiot, and he'll remind you that all you just did was call and give you your change. (note: I have intentionally used this in tournament play to project a strong hand without actually having to commit the chips to the pot.)

* Definitely no string betting. If you don't know what that means, you perhaps shouldn't be throwing your money around in a casino just yet.

* Don't worry about your body's "fight or flight" reaction when you're in a big pot. It's natural to show some signs of nervousness at first. It's actually difficult for your opponent to put you on a big hand or a bluff, although it usually means a big hand. Eat a banana or two before you play and it will act as a bit of a beta blocker.

* If you're playing a limit cash game, a good rule of thumb for your initial buy-in is 30 big bets.

* Don't be afraid to ask to move to a different seat if you don't like where you're at. I was at a casino in Phoenix once at a 5/10 table, doing quite well, and then this maniac gets put to my left and completely threw me off with his play. Seat 1 opened up and I immediate asked to moved there.

* Whatever you do, don't be the idiot wearing sunglasses at a 1/2 or 2/4 table.

Good luck and have fun!

I'm curious about this sentence.

What is beta? Why do bananas block my beta? And why do I want my beta to be blocked?

What else blocks my beta?

Is there anything that releases my beta? Are there any circumstances when I would want my beta to be released?

I always love this. Every time I play in one casino's $13 buyin tournament, there's always one guy wearing sunglasses.

Sometimes I'll stare them down when I think they're bluffing me for like a minute. Then I'll adjust my hair, ya know, using their glasses as a reflection. Also ask them "Can you see into my soul?"

- Seat one is to the dealer's left. There's nothing worse then playing in your first live tournament and sitting in the wrong seat. OK, there probably are some worse things. But it's pretty bad.

I am not a doctor, not do I play one on TV, but I do know a little bit about this.

Short answer: Beta blockers are (typically) medications that reduce the workload of the heart and lower blood pressure. They are usually prescribed to relieve angina (a certain type of chest pain) or to treat high blood pressure.

One of the banana's many magic qualities (there are many) is that at contains natural elements of the same properties found in beta blockers. Of course, you would have to eat about 200 bananas to equal one prescription grade pill.

The thing about beta blockers, is they cause your heart rate to SLOW DOWN. I believe I have also heard of people with sever cases of social disorders being prescribed these as well, which makes sense. There are scores of musicians and actors that take a beta blocker before performing, because the effect basically relieves their stage fright.

I used to do quite a bit of public speaking, and someone turned me on to the calming effect that a couple of bananas would have, and I can tell you that I found it to be effective. If I know that I'm going to find myself in a situation where I am going to be nervous or anxcious, I will usually power down a couple of bananas about an hour before.

I've munched on bananas during the course of the last two major tournaments that I've played in, and I think it has helped me remain calm in certain situations.

I'm not making this up, nor am I some kind of health nut, although some people in the medical community are sceptical. Do some research on Google and you will find multiple references to this as well.

Some very good advice so far - I learned about the string bet the hard way as my raise became a call.

1. Shower up; hopefully, everyone else at the table thought of the same thing. If you're going to order food, maybe the garlic/onion/cheese burger is not the best choice.

2. Remember to tip the dealer if you are so inclined(especially the good ones)

3. Be aware of special situations; when I was at the Reno Hilton, they had kill pots for players who won two hands in a row; winning player had to put up a double blind and the limits were raised 2x for that hand only.

if you are playing in a NL game, make sure you know the casino's rule about how far you can bring your chips out before its declared a bet.

The place that I play at, if you bring your chips past where your cards are, everything in your hand is a bet and you have to put it in... I learned this the hard way. If you want to count out chips then make sure you do it behind where your cards are sitting