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The toughest part is how I went out. With guys overplaying any ace and our table a few players short, I limped UTG with AQs. An aggressive player with about the same amount of chips as I threw his all-in with AJs and I made the easy call. To my dismay he flopped the nut flush and my 4 hours of worked was flushed along with it.

The guy who beat me must have felt liked the revived heart attack victim because he got real quiet for a while after kicking my ass. When he decided to get aggressive again, he picked another bad spot going all-in with his 66 versus the chip leader's JJ. He made it more dramatic this time beating the chip leader on the river with a straight. Later when he made it to heads up he got all-in with QT v AK and, of course AK flopped two pair and the miracle worker hit the gutshot on the turn to stay alive. He eventually finished 2nd but the sun was shining awfully bright on that dog's ass nonetheless.

The key to the night for me was tripling up early with a set of 3s against AA and a gambler. That allowed me to play a little looser and call a raise against a big stack 15 minutes later with 76o. Against that guy I flopped a not too obvious straight draw along with an ace which I hoped he liked in case I hit the straight. He was hoping that I had hit the ace, because he hit a set of 8s. I hit my straight on the turn and I busted him out and had a big stack at the first break. It was one of those nights where I was making good reads and avoiding the wrong races. But poker can be the young mistress laughing at the doddering old fool player at any moment and that moment came for me too soon.