First, the good news. I made the money. I finished 16th out of 133 for a whopping $31.92 payoff on my $22. If I had just limped along barely, and folded my way into the money or something, I might be happy with that.

I only got "lucky" once in the tournament, and I'm perfectly happy with the way I played the hand. I called a minimum raise from the small blind with A4s. Of course, I flopped a flush draw, and immediately pushed all in. Obviously, I was pretty sure my ace high wasn't the best hand, but there was a decent chance I would just take the pot, and if called I had outs. Pretty typical semibluff, for all my chips. I was called by KQ (for a pair of kings, with the one on the flop), and hit my flush on the turn to double up. A bit later, I raise with 22 and get one caller. I flop my set, and push all in. I get called by AK, who paired the ace, and I double up again. At that point, I was the chip leader with 45 remaining.

For a while, I get nothing, steal a few blinds and pots here and there. I've dropped to about fifth place with 18 left (made the money at that point). A short while later, I raise with KJo in middle position. Not a great move, but I was just stealing blinds. One of the blinds calls, and the flop is JTx. The blind bets, and I push him all in. Given the size of the blinds, pot size, and stack sizes, he really wasn't forced to call at this point, especially considering his hand. He had AQ. I was a 2:1 favorite after the flop, but of course hit my two pair on the turn to give him his straight and knock me down to about $9k in chips, with 400/800 blinds. I'm down to $7k after posting a few blinds, and I get ATo. I push all in, and get called by A5s. Again, I'm in a big pot as a 2:1 favorite, but my hopes are immediately shattered when my opponent flops nut flush, and I don't flop a pair, so I'm drawing absolutely dead.

I'm not complaining about the bad beats. I'm just a little disappointed to have finished only 16th after playing so well, having a nice stack, and then losing it all when I pushed someone in as a favorite, and then was all in as a favorite. I guess that's why they call it gambling.

Thanks to Iggy for setting it up, and thanks to Wil for being the special celebrity guest. Both of them went out on worse beats than I did (Iggy: QQ vs 99, all in preflop, 9 on the river, and Wil: JJ vs TT, all in preflop, four card straight for the TT). Thanks to everyone else who played as well.

All in all, it was much more fun than a typical tournament, and I certainly hope to do it again sometime.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention this. Fairly early on in the tournament, it folded to me in middle position with, of course, the hammer! I made my standard 3x BB raise, and stole the blinds, with a nice HAMMER! in the chat box, and showed my cards. That's always fun.