How to turn $10 into $1.70

I took Kat's advice with the $10 I found donated in my Stars account and played a bunch of $1 SnG's (and a couple $1.50 Turbos), and played them ultra-aggressively. It was fold or raise... calls or checks were only to be used when trapping. I learned a few things.

- When my thought-process shifted to ultra-aggressive, it forgot to bring along hand selection. Suddenly everything but absolute crap looked playable as long as nobody was in before me.
- Raise-or-fold works to a degree, but I had to add checking when out of position or in the BB with crap to the list. I was throwing away too much by betting post-flop with nothing, and getting called all the way down. It did no good for my table image.

That said, I wasn't doing too badly. I wasn't winning anything mind you, but I was dominating the tables I was at. Even though the majority of the $1 players are either new, or weak-aggressive, they clued in that I was making it unprofitable for them to play against me. Especially after I won a few hands with things like flushes or sets vs their small pairs. It was more often than not a "why are you calling my pot-sized bet with that crap?" that would take me down.

So then I tightened up my hands. Still looser than I'd normally play, but not in the "K3o in the BB is a good hand" mode. Watching boards come and go that my folded hole cards would have hit became routine, but when I was in, more often than not I was killing. Again though, the suckouts would kill me.

Which brings me to a point. I haven't played in a $1 in months... and I'm amazed at how far my game has come since I started. I used to be that guy that thought any two suited cards was great. I lived and died by the suckout. Now, I look at these players and hope only for the best for them. I saw maybe two players in the 5 or 6 games I've played that had any idea what they were doing. The rest might as well have been playing roulette with the game they were playing. Unfortunately for me, sometimes you actually win in roulette.

I've also seen that as far as I've come, I've still got a ways to go. I've turned up the agression in the last couple months, and luckily have had the hands to be aggressive with. That said, I've found some holes in my game that I intend to address. At least one of them I've been trying to deal with for a couple weeks, but have yet to fall into the habit of patching it.

But it's been fun, and I have enough for one more $1 SnG... then I'll have $0.50 to blow somewhere. Wish me luck.