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 know it would be a decent sized tournament. By Friday evening, I had 23 sign-ups -- which is quite a few for 24 hours before. I also was hearing a bit of a "buzz" -- the discussion I hear about anticipation of the tournament -- that a bunch of people were going to show up. By game time, we had 36 players (five tables), and $6450 in the prize pool.
My personal tournament journey started very well. I never had to re-buy, and wasn't bad beat. I amassed a very comfortable chip stack -- probably the largest at my table. By the time the break came, I had approximately $35,000 in chips.
From there, things continued to go rather well, until I was moved to another table. When I arrived at the other table, the first three hands I used to raise, other players moved all-in on me. These actions were certainly discouraging -- and I didn't feel like calling with KJ off suit, or 4-6 suited. So for the remainder of the tournament, I struggled to get traction. Regardless, I did manage to make it to the final table, and cashed in the tournament in 8th place. When we made the final table, everybody decided to cut out $100 from first place, and award it to 9th place; and cut out $50 from 2nd place, and award it to 10th place. Therefore, by virtue of making it to the final table, we were all in the money.
Bounties and Jackpots:
The high hand of the night was Aces full of Jacks (AAAJJ). The money went unclaimed, and I collected it as a tip on the tournament. The bad beat jackpot wasn't hit, and the $130 collected during this tournament will be added to last month's $225 to set next month's bad beat jackpot at $355. The $50 prize on aces cracked was awarded early in the night to Bryan Chaffin; and Joel Wright won the $50 bounty on last month's winner: Rob Busse.
The players finished in this order:
| 1st Place | Scott Kuusinen | $2,050 |
| 2nd Place | Joel Wright | $1,200 |
| 3rd Place | John M | $800 |
| 4th Place | Dominic Graz | $500 |
| 5th Place | Jim Collins | $350 |
| 6th Place | Devin Jackson | $250 |
| 7th Place | Joey Morrison | $200 |
| 8th Place | Robert Collins | $150 |
| 9th Place | John Kichak | $100 |
| 10th Place | Jason Hershfield | $50 |
Congratulations to everybody who made it to the money.