Somewhere between West Virginia’s final touchdown in its 45-24 thrashing of the Terrapins and one my favorite 12-ounce cocktails, a sudden feeling of spontaneity swept over me. A quick peek at my Pacific Poker bankroll showed $43, and after perusing the tournament schedule I noticed registration was open for a $20 MTT to begin approximately 30 minutes from that time. Immediately thereafter, I thought to myself, “Why not?” I decided to take the plunge. I registered for the tournament and watched the player pool grow in numbers until registration ended and the tournament began with over 170 players.

Three MTTs, two final tables and $200 worth of winnings later that night (or early Friday morning), I had concluded a successful first night of MTT play. After the excitement of my eventful night had subsided, I took some time to reflect on the similarities and differences I noticed between MTTs and Sit-and-Gos. Naturally, MTTs containing hundreds of players are much more of a grind that your average Sit-and-Go with five or 10 players. I went into the tournaments with the “marathon over sprint” mentality and varied my play accordingly based on chip stack, blinds, seating arrangement, etc. However, one common similarity I found between both MTTs and Sit-and-Gos is the prevalence of wreckless players. I realized I played much more intelligently than the vast majority of the players in the tournament, sticking to core values of basic poker strategy to guide my way. Within minutes of each MTT, several players had been eliminated after pushing all-in within the first couple of hands. I suppose those types of players always tend to weed each other out in the early going.

I finished ninth in the first MTT I played last week and fourth in another one immediately thereafter that night. I closed out the night busting on the payout bubble of MTT No. 3, and decided to call it a successful night. I added another final table Sunday night in a $10 MTT – finishing fifth for $75. For a guy who toiled in low-limit Sit-and-Gos for the last two years, I’m excited about what my online future may hold for me, while realizing I still have much to learn before choosing to tackle some of the more distinguished online MTTs.

All self-promoting rhetoric aside, the moral of this story is this: if you’ve played the online game for an extended period time with variable success and you consider yourself a heady player, go ahead and take the plunge. Since joining ITH.com in June the one piece of advice that I’ve continued to hear from all of the great poker players within the ITH family is, “Play a lot of poker – it’s the only way you’re going to get better.” Specifically, don’t be afraid to gamble that one time and bite the bullet that very first time.

You may surprise yourself.