Another Step Up !!

Tonight, I decided to use my ticket for Step 3, a $82 buy-in sit-n-go that paid the top two finishers a Step Four ticket worth $215 and paid 3rd, 4th, and 5th another Step Three ticket. Well I RUN GOOT. About 10 hands in I got QQ UTG, made a raise to 80 at 10/20, and got called only by the big blind. The flop came 6-5-3 with two clubs, I bet 100, got check-raised to 300, pushed, and got called by his 77. He missed on the turn and river and I doubled up early. Since 5 places paid back at least the buy-in, I decided to play pretty tight after the double-up, and maintained my stack for the next level or two. I raised coming in several times, and the only times I got played back at were when I had low pairs, which I naturally folded. It was down to five players (so we were all In The Money) when the key hand of the tourney came up. I raised to 900 at 150/300 with 10-10 UTG, and the button pushed for about 2200 total, which I called. He flipped over QJ off, and I won the conflip, which gave me about a 2-1 chip advantage over each of the remaining players. After that I re-tightened, raising only when I was not going to fold to a push and settling for letting the smaller stacks fight it out for the other top spot. Eventually one of my opponents doubled up and took a big chip lead, but fortunately I had position on the shortest stack and he was loathe to challenge me. On the final hand, the big stack limped, the shorty pushed with 33, and the big stack woke up with QQ and won, giving himself and ME the Step Four tickets !
So now I have a ticket worth $215, and my total investment so far is $21 plus 500 FPP's. Not Too Shabby. I have been playing very solid sit-n-go poker and have been fortunate to get action on my big hands. Let us hope the string can continue ! !