I posted a 3rd place finish in the Excalibur daily morning NL tourney. Overall I recommend this tourney for those looking to try a NL tourney. The buyin is low and there are no rebuys. The dealers were friendly. The layout and ambiance of the Excalibur poker room is top-notch.

Some tips and observations...

Registration begins at 7am. Tourney starts at 9am. I arrived at 7:45am on a Saturday morning and was about 35th on the list to signup. The tourney was capped at its maximum of 60 so I'm sure people were turned away.

Play in the early rounds was much too passive. The blinds go up quickly so it becomes an all-in fest at the end of the first hour. Keep in mind you get 300 chips and blinds are 100/200 at the start of hour #2. So do your best to accumulate chips during the 5/10 and 10/20 blinds while people are too tight and timid. Find the 1st time players and bully them out of the pot. They'll back down unless they have a very strong hand.

For your sake I hope you get a fast dealer. Our first dealer dealt only 7 hands in the first 15 minute period. By comparison, another dealer made it more than 2 times around the table in the third 15 minute session. I think his name was Harold and I thank him for the speed.

Management needs to learn the headsup rule. I got knocked out in 3rd so this didn't affect me. But the players, dealer, and tourney manager had to debate for 5 minutes to decide who needed to post a small and big blind and who would act first once it got to headsup. It should not require debate, management should just know.

Good luck if you ever try it and I hope you have first time luck like I did in my first attempt there.