Be a Winner at Winstar

So I recently had to go to Oklahoma for some top secret stuff that I cannot disclose for fear of people knowing why I was there. Regardless, I finally gathered up the jewels to enter into a casino and play poker. I felt that with Gus's glowing review of said facility and with a partner in crime (my wife), I would be able to sit and play. For some reason I have been really nervous about playing live, I mean I play with friends and stuff, but the thought of really playing was intimidating. It took about 30 minutes to get on a table, $1/2 no-limit. The minimum buy-in was $100 and having read part of Brunson's book I knew I should start with more. I didn't fully take his advice and plop down a grand or so but I did ask for $160 in chips. This way I had some breathing room if I botched a few hands from nerves and it kept me from being low stack. I sat back and gathered intel for about five or six hands. I played one hand fairly cheaply and lost about $5 on a bad bluff on the end (looking back I played the whole hand wrong but I learned). A couple hands later I finally got my feet wet, and lost a monster pot. I had QJ and the button and just limped-in for the big blind after about 6 callers. (too many people in the pot for that hand) The flop left me with top pair with Jacks and a straight draw. Although I bet after it was checked to me, I apparently didn't bet big enough. One man called with a flush draw. I think the turn was a blank, so I bet again and again bet small enough for the other guy to stay in. The river comes the K and gives me the best straight possible (with the available cards). The old man bets $35 and I thought, either he is trying to steal the pot or he has two pair. I waited and as I was calling someone said he caught his flush...... Oh shit. He did. And I lost about $60 or should I say I bought my first lesson on position and the value of raising pre-flop. After that I went back to basics and playing good hard poker. I had already evaluated the table and decided to use that to my advantage. Most everyone was very tight, so I went aggressive. Most of the pots went down to this guy two to my left and me. I used my position on him when I could, played a few odd hands just to keep him and the table guessing and raised a lot. All in all, I played for about 3 and a half hours and walked out with $369. It looks like my reading books and studying the game paid off. It makes me eager to get back to a live game as opposed to internet. I felt as though I got a much better read on my opponents and it felt more natural touching the cards and chips. Oh yeah a note for Gus, Amarillo Slim was there at the table next to mine. He was playing $5/10 no-limit. And there was A LOT of money on that table, the guy next to him left for about 45 minutes and they were about to collect his chips and sit another player and I heard them say that man had $1300 in chips. So I looked at Slim's stack and he had about ten full stacks of the green chips and several more of the red $5 chips, I think the other guy had at most two stacks of green.