Finished 2nd in TNP Tournament

OK, it was just our regular tournament with my buddies and there were only 9 guys. It's a $50 buy-in tournament with one rebuy allowed. I always try to go for broke, and either double up or rebuy early. But the last 3 tournaments, I've taken third, which doesn't even get your money back if you rebuy.

I finally broke the curse and took 2nd which was good for a $115 profit. Early on, I flopped top pair top kicker, made a big bet, and Ed went all-in. I hate to bust out with just a pair, but he could easily be making the play with less than that, so I called, and he had middle pair. No help came, and I doubled up.

I played pretty well, in particular making no big mistakes. I got lucky later when I busted Greg T. with my 55 vs. his KQ, a King flopped, but I spiked a 5 on the turn. Mark busted me out with his J8 vs my J9 when he flopped two pair. Mark played well but had quite a bit of luck, like when his AQ made a boat vs. Ed's KK. I also had Mark all-in with my AK vs. his A8, and I had him all the way to the river, when the board made two pair and we split the pot.

I laid down my hand quite a few times when someone came over the top. Most of the guys play pretty straightforward, so I usually didn't think they were making a play on me.

We then played a single table, winner take all tournament for $10 each, with the blinds going up after every orbit. I was out on the first hand. I flopped top pair and bet the pot, there were about 6 callers, this drunk guy made a min-raise, and I went all-in, figuring he could have anything. Sure enough, he only had middle pair, but he also had a flush draw which he rivered to bust me out. At the time I thought that I was about 3:2 to win that hand, but it turns out that top pair vs. a smaller pair with a flush draw is almost exactly 1:1.

The drunk guy then went on to bust out the next two players, each time as the underdog and catching a draw on the turn or river. Frankly, it didn't matter much, because the structure was such (fast blinds and only one winner) that you needed to make a move early. He had a huge stack of chips and ended up taking third, then the remaining two players made a deal to play to split the money, rather than just have one winner.

It was a fun night and we started out with a ton of chips in the main tournament, which gave a lot of room to maneuver and made the tournament more fun. In the past, when the tournament got down to three-handed, there was usually a big chip leader and the blinds were huge, and it ended quickly. This time, when it got heads up, we each had 40x the big blind, so there was a lot more play.

- schneid