I don't consider myself an expert in comparison to many of the regular posters on here, from whom I too have learned a great deal, but I think you should try moving up to 5-10 and see how you do. I played 1-5 for several years at Foxwoods, and while I had some nice wins, had a huge variance, and got chased down plenty of times by players looking for gutshot straights and backdoor flushes. Those were the hands that really aggravated me. It is still going to happen at 5-10 and even 10-20, but it will happen a lot less, at least in my experience. In those games, the best starting hand tends to stand up more often.


The other thing you should remember is that in the long run, a player who chases you down and catches you is going to be profitable to play against. Sure, sometimes he will catch, but most of the time he is paying you off. You want that player in the game.


I moved up from 1-5 to 5-10 and found my variance went down and my results greatly improved. The same thing happened when I went up to 10-20. 15-30 at Foxwoods seems to be a little more volatile than 10-20--some of the players are crazy--but there is plenty of opportunity for profit if you play tight and are aggresive when you have the goods.


Congratulations on your first tournament win. I won my first tournament this winter, it really is a great feeling.