Party $350K

[texasscud]

I'm an avid student of the game (relative newcomer--been playing seriously less than 6 months, generally at $10 and $20 SNG's), but new to big MTT's. I qualified for the $350K through the $9 + $1. I was somewhat surprised at the generally mediocre level of play in this qualifier. I played it twice, busting out 44th the first time and qualifying on my second try. Do most of you buy in directly or use the qualifying route? My BR and experience level don't support direct buy-in, so I'm hoping that I've stumbled onto something other than beginner's luck.

I finished at #270 out of 2,284, 50 places out of the money. It was a great learning experience, and I hope to be there again in the near future. I hope this is the right forum for this topic.

[greyishhue]

Most of the bad players have qualified through feeder tournaments or satellites. If I were to play in that tournament I would probably buy in, but it is risky when you can have a lot of tickets given to some very mediocre players who qualified by the $9 buy in and get lucky. That said the same applies to most big on line tournaments which is why I like playing live as well.