I watch the $1000 SNGs from time to time on Party Poker. There are some very, very strong players there who are playing every night. Usually there are only one or two tables going, so it is a crowd of alot of regulars most nights. Usually very few people coming up through the "steps" system compared to the regulars, and the "steps" players are always the worst players out there. Always. Some of the regulars play often enough that I have a very good idea of when they like to change gears near the end, what hands they go all in with when it's heads up, and basically every other component of their "vanilla", no-reads strategy.

I log onto party poker last night and find a $1000 table with 8 seats filled. REMARKABLY, there are only 3 regulars at the table!! Two guys are talking about how they made it all the way from step one!! WOW. I take a deep breath, click on a seat, grit my teeth and push the "yes, take $1065 from my account please" button. Another player soon joins and I'm playing a $1000 SNG!

FYI, the payouts are 4500, 2500, 1800, and 1200. The two players to my immediate right are newbies. The two players who climbed from step one are two seats to my left and across the table. The other newbie is also across the table, and the other players (including one and three seats to my left) are regulars.

I got AK in the second round in middle position, a newbie raised to 90, and I re-raised to 200. A vet went over the top for about 900, all in. Newbie thinks and calls. I fold. Newbie shows TT, vet had KK. Vet doubles up plus my 200, newbie down to 50 or so and soon busts.

A couple rounds go by, the vet to my left gets busted on a semibluff on the flop with his nut flush draw that missed. One of the newbies across the table doubled up.

With blinds 75-150, I get my first solid chance to steal with A9 from the cutoff. I have very few chips left, so I obviously go all in. It folds around, I think at this point I was at about 800. 7 players left.

Then comes the big hand. I'm in middle position with TT. A newbie with about 2200 chips raises. He has been playing very aggressive and somewhat loose. I push all in, it folds around, newbie calls. He has A7s. He misses, I hit a ten for good measure, so I pick up 1900 chips from the middle (including others' blinds).

Time passes, we get down to 5 and the blinds are 200-400. I have stolen my way up to 2400 chips, so I am in total lockdown mode, hoping to make the money. Admittedly, I was scared money at this point. three of the other players remaining were regulars, one newbie was left. The newbie was a medium stack (2000 or so) in the small blind, I'm in the big blind. it folds to him, and he minimum raises. Man that smells weak. You never see that play from the regular players, because it is foolish to play a hand out of position for 1/3 of your chips like that. Monster hands generally limp, as do marginal hands, and solid but not great hands often go all in. I have T9s... figure even if he calls, my hand is probably pretty live. I raise all in, he folds. Thank goodness for the newbies. A regular, the 2nd stack, busts out 5th, and the newbie limps into 4th place and $1200.

So it's me and two regulars -- one short stack and one monster stack. Blinds are 300-600. I push all in from the button with ATo, short stack folds, big stack in the blind calls me with 88 and I am out of luck. I finish 3rd, net a victory of $735. Woohoo! I even got a "gg [my screenname]" at the end from one of the best players at the $1000 SNG level, who busted out pretty early but stuck around to watch.

they have 2,000 and 5,000 ones as well, under the "Steps" area

anybody watched that Zee Justin guy play? Is he really that good? He plays 8 tables at once. Seems like he's a machine.

nash I'm proud of you... you certainly have more balls then me