Harrah's Midnight Bounty Tournament

I decide at this point to sink our winnings into the midnight tournament at Harrah's (just under our rooms.) It was a $70 buy-in with $10 bounty per knock out (meaning you get $10 for every person you put out of the tournament.) Worst luck ever, when we signed up, they assigned Davy & I to the *same table*. We did our best to avoid each other, but that rarely works out.

Within the first hour, Davy managed to snag one $10 bounty and I got two. Davy made several small mistakes with failing to raise properly and they really really cost him as his better hand was sucked out on. After that, he was on the critical list and was quickly out. I picked up 2 more bounties over time and continually had just over the "average" chip stack - never really getting low stacked or big stacked. Before you knew it, they announced the final table.

The only girl at the final table, I looked around at the chip stacks. The "big stack" had about 200k, with blinds at 5k and 10k. The low stack had about 35k. My stack was 75k and that put me at about 6th out of the 10. Sometimes when you're playing - you just know you've got it. I was dealt a couple of great hands that let me steal some blinds and squeeze up to 90k. Then I just sat back and watched them annihilate each other. When we were 1 away from the money, I ended up all-in for my tournament life with 9-9. Guy across lets me know that he *folded* 9-9 and the caller called me with Q-J off suite. Luckily, the nines held up and I doubled up through what was a very big stack. With the blinds up to 15k & 30k, this was significant. We made some jokes about splitting the pool, but no one was game. We took up a collection for the "bubble" to get his buy in back and the very next hand the bubble was burst. Fifth place went out shortly thereafter and we were down to four. At this point, I had raised a couple of hands preflop with no callers and my stack was close to 200k - 3rd biggest stack. The smallest stack then crippled the 2nd biggest stack, who soon thereafter went out to me and I was the 2nd biggest stack.

The small stack tried to convince the big stack to do a split and then play for "the change" - or about $200 for the winner on top of the split. He refused, and in two hands I trapped him and he was out. Guess he should have taken the deal :P

At this point, I had about double the other player's stack. $1212 for first and $698 for second - he offered a split. Looking at my stack, I refused. I then played and won the next five hands in a row and it was all over. Final hand he had J-2 and pushed all in. I called with Q-J and a Q fell on the flop to seal his fate. I cashed out with $1212 + $40 in bounties, which I gave to the dealer pool for the tip.

Since some of my winnings were still back at the room, we were up overall about $1300 for the weekend at this point. I quickly rushed to the cash counting Bank of America ATM and deposited $1100 before I spent it.