Wild night of poker!! There were 12 people playing - at $40 in, with buybacks, and two tables. I went up against darrin early on in a showdown, there were 3 twos on the table, a king, and a 10. I had the king in my hand for the full house. I strongly felt that darrin didn't have the two - so I went all in (plus he was big blind - so he was forced in from the start). He called - and had pocket aces!!! So I was first one out...terrible luck.. But I bought back in.. I was up and down, but made it to the final table (when you get down to three) only because I found ways to take out the other players, as darrin was far and away the chip leader.. At the final table, i was 5th out of 6 to start in terms of chip count.. quickly scott was out, then aaron went out on a ridiculous luckly river card for darrin.. so darrin, myself, shawn, and steve (friend of jeff s from work) were left.. steve was far and away chip leader - he basically had half of all chips.. darrin was way up there too.. steve was forcing the issue pre-flop as a chip leader should.. i figured out the strategy to take him was to force him first, or go over the top on him with an all in..to which he would fold. i was making good progress as the blinds were big - so my chips were slowly increasing.. I continued the all-ins, and he finally called one...unfortunately for him it was when i had pocket jacks, and he was sitting on king-10 suited or something like that. i won, and by this point it made serious damage at his chips (that hand also knocked shawn out, just on the blinds).. so it was darrin/myself/steve, with 2nd place taking $100, and first the rest. darrin got steve as well on a few large bets, so steve was basically done.. (i think another all-in by me killed him down to basically nothing). Final hand was steve was all-in on the blind, and darrin/myself called. flop came up, and i hit a pair of aces, and no other hands were there. so i bet quite large, and darrin immediately responded with all-in. darrin/myself were near even in chips - so i called! showdown mania.. he had two face hearts, with two hearts on the flop against my aces...he didn't hit!! So i won!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! darrin in 2nd.. (steves hand was 3-6 unsuited - and nothing to match on the table). It was pretty wild...!

$460! (because of some buy backs) sweet catch. felt really good - can't wait to play vegas and try out some of the strategies.........:) the pocket jacks were the "turning point"..