Well I've not had a lot of opportunity to play MTTs over the last couple of weeks, so I've been dabbling in the steps tournaments on Party Poker.

These are interesting and cheap to play as they are single table tournaments which can be bought into for as little as $11 dollars (step 1).

If you come 1st or 2nd you win entry to a $50 table (step 2) where 1st and 2nd wins entry to a $200, 3rd another entry to the $50 and 4th entry to the $11 again.

After the $200 there is a $500 and the $1000 buy-in which if won nets $4500.

Clearly it's going to be challenging to make the money, however for the buy-in it's a cheap way to play some poker without too much concentration.

Also I can play them on my laptop without feeling inhibited by the lack of Pokertracker, which I really make use of in the MTTs and ring games.

So.... I bought in the first level and won it and a place in step 2 the $50. Then I bought in again at the first level and won again. Very nice. After a while I decided to play on of my step 2 entries and came 3rd, which was fine as I still had two step 2 entries.

I tried again at step 2 and won it, for entry to step 3 (the $200) and came 4th, dropping me back to step 2, which I played again and won!! Yay me.

Then rather than play the $200 while not in the right mood I played another $11 and won that.

So currently I have 2 entries to Step 2 and 1 entry to Step 3 to play which is nice.


Now while I would love to think I have suddenly cracked the single table format and am destined to make a fortune at these things, I think it is still more than likely that I will emerge with nothing for my efforts. However I have got to say that the games are phenomenally soft. Loads of loose play early on and then everyone tightens up near the bubble. Of course I'm doing the exact opposite and hardly playing a hand til there are 5 people left.

I am sure the $500 and $1000 games are tougher, however it's a great and cheap way to play some poker and possibly win some major cash. Heartily recommended.

All sounds very complicated to me.

Heh heh,

probably my crap explanation,

http://www.partypoker.com/news/event...05.html#single

Still seems like a LOT of effort to me.

I've played some before, not on Party...on ladbrokes (called ladder tournies there)...

try them a few times but never won any money, always seemed to take a bad beat on level 3 or 4, and have to go back to the begining...

the jackpot SNGs some sites have seem better (e.g. Titan's win 4 $2+0.25 SNG in a row for $2000 bonus) as you still get the normal payout for coming 1st to 3rd...

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I love him who is ashamed when the dice fall in his favour and who then asks: Am I then a cheat? for he wants to perish.

I doubt you will end up with nothing, the higher you make it into the steps, the more likely you will at least get a buy-in to a lower step at least.

Just be careful you don't get stuck in an infinite loop.

As long as the infinite loop didn't last too long it'd be ok I guess.

EA Melguzio use to play these, I remember seeing him in the 2K ones. I know he played a lot of these

Send him a PM or E-MAil and see what he says.

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