I decided to jump back in this weekend and it sure paid off. My hands were holding up and I played excellent poker sans a bad beat at the Final Table. I took down 5th Place this time around in the $11 buy-in 180 player tournament. I still feel that I would have easily made it into the top three had I been able to avoid a little variance at the end.

I got off to a terrible start in this particular poker tournament and had to push with only $900 chips early but I managed to triple up when I did. Once I was back up to $3k in chips I went on a run and never looked back. I quickly moved up to $10k and then $15k with a straight and flopped nut Flush taking out two players in the process. Once we got down to the money I was able to maintain my stack and get to the “Promised Land” with around $13k. I quickly doubled up and got back in the hunt and things looked good at that point.

I watched the chips fly around for a hand or two until I picked up [A][K] and the short stack pushed. I insta-called and he turned over [Q][9]. The flop came down [9][9][X] taking half of my stack with it. I still had enough chips to wait on a hand though but it never happened and I went out in fifth place. Nice run and a nice cash but you are always working to win the whole thing. Back at it later on today.