Another Live Cash

Well I played me another one of them there Foxwoods daily tourneys today and gol-durnit I actually cashed this time ! My wife and I headed on down to the 'Woods Tuesday, played a few slots, went to the "Price Is Right" show, and didn't win anything (but didn't lose much either). Today we both entered the 11am daily $100+20 tourney they run, the same type of one referenced in the previous entry. In that previous tourney, I finished 12th out of exactly 100 entrants, missing the money by 2 spots. Sadly, if there had been ONE more entrant in that tourney it would have paid 15 spots and I would have cashed. Today's tourney attracted about 73 entrants and also paid 10 places, with a top prize of over two grand. Unfortunately my wife finished in the middle of the pack after having built up a nice chip stack early, but I survived long enough to make it to the final table. I played great and had a lot of good hands that essentially played themselves, and I was only involved in one raised pot that I can recall where I folded post-flop.

In the first level I was able to amass a pretty good stack early, once making the nut flush and getting someone else to bet it for me and also repopping limpers with AA in the blinds and getting flop and turn calls on a 10d-8d-2x-2x-10x board. I then went card dead for an entire level + but won a late pot to carry about 10k (we had begun with 5000) to the first break.
The second 4 levels started with me folding for about 20 minutes and then picking up a bunch of pots, usually with a pretty good hand. I was fortunate to pick up a lot of premium pairs today, get action on them, and get them to hold. I beat an all-in from the button's K-8 when I woke up with JJ in the small blind, and just before the second break repopped a "serial" limper on the button with KK and got the shorty next to me to shove with 77. I obviously called and he was drawing dead on the K-K-3 flop :). He was a nice enough older guy who methinks was tilting a little after I beat him with 6-4 suited on a 6-3-5-K-4 board (he had bet the turn when the king came and checked the river) a few hands earlier. I went to the second break with over 20k.
Once we got to level nine, there were about 23 players left and I was probably in the middle of the pack. I hunkered down and maintained my stack as the shorties fell one by blessed one. When we got down to about 13 left, 2 of the 3 shortest stacks were to my immediate left, and I turned into a card rack, waking up with KK, QQ, AJ, 88, and JJ everytime they were in the blinds and just shoving and getting folds. I finally did double up the very shortest stack when I shoved 77 on the button and he called with 10h8h in the blinds and hit a 10, but that was a small hit. I felt pretty good about cashing until I raised AK off to 8k at 1.5/3k with about 22k behind, got a call from the chip leader in one of the blinds, and had to fold when he shoved the 10-9-4 flop. He showed QJo for some reason, probably to get back at me for having been very active recently, but in hindsight even if I had KNOWN what his cards were I might not have made the call as we would have been flipping (he had 3 K's, 3 Q's, 3 J's, and 4 8's as outs), so I was not upset about the fold. After that dent to my stack I was forced to re-tighten to ensure that I made the money, and was very pleased to see the shortest stack at the other table finally bust a few hands later, sending me to the final table.
At the final table the two shorties from my earlier table were all-in in a three-way pot and both got eliminated by the chipleader's Ace-Ten when he spiked a Ten on the turn after an Ace-high flop and beat 66 and AQ. The chipleader had been running like Usain Bolt, really, having hit a two-outer set in one hand, having tripled-up with KK vs. QQ and JJ, and of course he made me his next victim. Blinds 2000-4000, I'm most likely the shortest stack with 11,900, chipleader limps in early position, I look down at 10h10c, and instashove. They guy next to me ponders for a few seconds and flat-calls my all-in, and the chipleader calls as well. I am 100% sure that my hand is good and am just hoping it holds up. The board comes Qd-3d-2x-4d-Qc, they both check it down, and just as I am about ready to sit back down and start stacking my chips, the chipleader says "flush", and flips over 6d7d. I uttered a few choice obscenities (I think "you gotta be f'ing kidding me" was one), talked about donkeys for a minute, and then went to the window to collect my 8th-place prize of $283. "At least I got my money in good..."