Yep, I did the same mistake in the beginning :) I was giving my full votes (as a minnow it was almost nothing anyway) to all the high payouts posts hoping that it will make me grow faster. And I didn't see any curation popping in my wallet. But in the same time I was voting on my friends that joined together with me and even though their posts didn't go higher than 1$ in payout I did see some tiny curation reward.
That made me think about the strategy too.

I also read somewhere that it matters when you upvote. If it is the first 15 minute of a post, 16-29 min of the post (If I am not mistaken), or after the 30 min of the post. The earlier you vote the more goes to the author, less to curators. The later... more goes to curators, but never above the 25%.