First place

I literally cannot remember the last time that this happened, but yesterday I finally managed to not only make the money but actually win a SNG ($5.50 buyin, $22.50 payout (nine players)). It happened at Full Tilt Poker, where I started playing two days ago. In two earlier attempts, I had bubbled, but both times it was due to tremendous bad luck on the bubble. Once I lost with AJ against AT (he made his flush), I don't even remember the other game.

But let me begin by praising the structure of the games at FTP. I have never seen anything like it! The blinds increase so slowly, you get to play a LOT of poker before luck begins to play a factor. This is great. In SNGs, the blinds increase every 6 minutes, and the big blind starts at 30 and then increases to 40,50,60,80,100,120,160,200,240,300. As an example, this means that after 30 minutes, the level 60/120 starts. Compare this to Party Poker, where the blinds go 40,60,100,200,300 (but in 10 minute increments): there you are playing at the level 100/200 starting from the 31st minute. To be fair, you get a larger stack at Party (2000), so multiplying by 3/4 you actually have a level of 75/150, and after that 112/225 from minute 41, compared to 100/200 starting from minute 43 at FTP.

OK, so taking the different stack sizes into account, the difference is not all that large. Especially since the tables at FTP are nine-handed, so you have to pay the blinds slightly more often. Nevertheless, all those small differences do add up, and this slow increase is very pleasant. It feels a lot different if you have a jump from 50/100 to 100/200 (a doubling of the blinds!) or from 50/100 to 60/120 to 80/160, even if the blinds go up faster.

Also I feel that all the heads-up games I have been playing are paying off. Of course you frequently find yourself heads-up during a SNG, and I find myself checking on made flops more often. I do have to force myself to click on the button of death marked "check", knowing that the next card may kill me, but it pays off tremendously. Most opponents will start to bet on the turn given the chance.

I also played an MTT at FTP. Things went quite well until after 2.5 hours my AA (all-in preflop) got cracked by J9s (made his straight). What can you do... But I shouldn't complain about this, since earlier in the same game I was all-in with top pair against what turned out to be two pair, and we both made a straight.