Played their tournament about a month ago on a Wed and they got 80 people. This time on Friday they only got 33, but I had a voucher for a free tourny so what the heck. They usually play shootout style where you have to win your table to advance, but they played normal with only 33 people and today I had the highlight hand of my young brick and mortar poker career, but also ended up getting slightly screwed in the end.

Notable hands.

Hand 1

Early on.....QJ offsuit on the button. Limp in with 4 others including blinds in the pot.

Flop is JTX and it's checked to me. I bet about half the pot. Everyone folds except the player to my right who calls. Too early for any reads yet. He hasn't shown a hand.

Turn is T. Now the board is paired. We both check.

River is 2. We both check and he stands up and slams J2 offsuit down with a YEAH until someone points out to him that his 2 doesn't count because of the Tens on board. Guy to the left of comments "Look at him, he's proud of it too." Guy showed a few more hands like that. Cracked KK with A6, but eventually went out with Q5.

Hand 2

I'm sitting at just about even in the BB and the CO who is the short stack goes all in for about 2000 when it's folded to him. I have [Jc]. Tough decision, but I think the blinds were 200/400 with 50 antes and it was a 1600 for me too call. I make the call and he shows 9's and hits his set on the flop.

Hand 3

[Qs] UTG. Had worked me way back up to a medium sized stack at this point. I limp hoping for a raise. It doesn't come and there are 4 to the pot including blinds.

Flop is [7d][2d]. SB bets a little less than half pot. BB folds. SB has been aggressive in the hands she's played, but has taken overcards and gutshots too far. She pushed all in on a Q high flop with AK and turned the K the last hand I saw her turn over. I think she might have the , but I think I'm ahead now. I could also represent a smaller flush since I had limped. Toughest decions of the tournament so far, but I really thought she had and a draw so I pushed.

Other limper folds and she calls taking about 15 seconds and turns over [8d] for top pair with worse flush draw. She lets out an "Oh S***" and my Queens stand up. She has me covered by a few chips so now I'm the table leader. Immediately after this hand we are consolidated to 2 tables where there are 2 stacks similar to mine.

Hand 4 - Highlight of my young poker career.

66 in the big blind w/ blinds of 600 and 1200. Folded to CO who bets 2400. I've seen him be very aggressive with mediocre hands in a short time, but his raise always seemed to be 2400 and then continuation bet, then all-in, which made his opponent fold every time so far. He has a decent sized stack, but I have him slightly covered. I call for 1200 more.

Flop 663 w/ 2 diamond. My hardest job now is trying to look indifferent because I know he's going to do the betting for me. I check, but not right away. He bets 3000 which I call after about a 20 second pause.

Turn is a black 2. I check, and he immediately pushes all-in. I call and turn over the boat and at 1st he thinks it's only a set and he has outs with his J5 of diamonds, but as soon as he realized what had happened he shakes my hand and leaves without seeing the river.

We end up getting down to 7 at the final table and my friend and I are still both in it. He is getting short stacked and has to make a stand with pocket 7's but goes out when his caller flops a pair of Aces.

Now we are down to 5 and the tourny pays four. I am 2nd in chips, a decent amount behind 1st, but only slightly ahead of 3rd and 4th. 5th place is about 1 or 2 rounds from being blinded and anted out. All of a sudden 3rd place suggests that we chop there. Of course the small stack agrees and 4th agrees too, but I couldn't believe that the chip leader easily agreed to it as well. I was the sole person to put up a fight and I tried to get the chip leader on my side, but he just couldn't be bothered to care. They all seemed pretty upset that I was going against this and I'm pretty sure they would have ganged up on me if I had continued so I really didn't feel like I had much choice. An even 5 way chop. I couldn't believe it.

Now to make matters even worse, the players that claimed 1st and 2nd had to fill out tax forms because it was over $500. Guess who got stuck with 2nd? And the chip leader got stuck with claiming 1st. I was furious as the low stack and the guy who suggested the chop got away free. I again tried to talk the chip leader into putting up a fight about this, but he just didn't care. Unreal. I really wish I would have known about the tax thing before I was handed the tax form. I would have flat out refused the chop or made the other 2 claim the taxes.

So in the end I wind up cashing for $500 which I had pre-agreed to split with the friend I went down there with, and claiming a little over $700. I won, but still felt like a loser.