Somehow I know when the tournament is going to be big, and when it's going to be a struggle. This month, I seemed to immediately know it would be a struggle. For one thing, there was no "buzz" -- the discussion I hear about anticipation of the tournament. Then as I started to make the phone call to round up players, it seemed like MANY of my regulars were out of town. In spite of it all, we still managed to get 31 players, and $5000 into the prize pool.
Everybody starts the tournament with $5000 in tournament chips. From there, every player is allowed an unlimited number of re-buys for the first three blind rounds -- for $5000 chips each; followed by an optional $10000 chip add-on at the break.
My personal tournament journey started with a question mark. None of my early hands were making it. But by the middle of the second blind round, things started to click. They clicked so much, that by the time the break came, I had a whopping $50,000 in chips. Almost half of these chips came during the last hand before the break, and re-buys being over. On that fateful last hand, the guy under the gun decided to make a play on the pot, and went all-in. He was second in chips at the table, and I was the table leader. I looked down and saw pocket aces, and won the pot to take all of his chips (he re-bought and added-on during the break).
From there, things seemed to go downhill. Shortly after the break, the guy UTG limped, and the guy to my right raised. I saw pocket kings and raised enough to put either of them all-in. Unfortunately, the guy UTG had limped is pocket aces, and didn't take him long to call. I lost 20,000 of my 50,000 chips in that one hand. I don't think I won a single hand after that point -- nor after the break for that matter. Therefore, I went out in 19th place, and didn't make any money.
Bounties and Jackpots:
I won the $50 high-hand of the night jackpot when I flopped top set, and waited for my opponent to catch up in the hand. He turned two pair, and went all-in. I called with top set, and the river gave me quad queens to collect the $50 high-hand jackpot.
The bad beat jackpot wasn't hit, and the $100 collected during this tournament will be added to last month's $125 to set next month's bad beat jackpot at $225. The $50 prize on aces cracked was awarded early in the night to Rob Busse. And John Kichak won the $50 bounty on last month's winner: Lang Vo.
The players finished in this order:
| 1st Place | Rob Busse | $1650 |
| 2nd Place | Vince Hemsley | $950 |
| 3rd Place | Chris Morton | $600 |
| 4th Place | Amol Deshpande | $400 |
| 5th Place | Jim DiPippo | $275 |
| 6th Place | Mike Tobar | $200 |
| 7th Place | David Rariden | $150 |
Congratulations to everybody who made it to the money.