Tunica Tourney and Okie-V (sorta)

Gordon (trkfix on Party) and I went to Tunica this weekend. We played a NL hold 'em $100 buy-in tourney Friday night at The Grand. There were 30 entries so it was a 3-table tourney. We started at the same table. Gordon made some great moves early including a nice sting to the designated maniac and gathered a large stack. I sat back and made mental notes on everyone at our table. The blinds are 50/100 and I look down in the small blind to find 7d,8d and limped in to join 4 others. The Big Blind checked and the flop was 4d,5d,6s. I checked and the Big Blind bet out 300 which everyone calls around to me. I know this hand can easily get counterfeited with 6 players in the hand so I go ahead and shove. They all fold except for the maniac. He picked a bad time to hit top pair. My hand improves to a straight flush on the river and I have a big stack.
Gordon and I both made it to the final table in great shape. He gets A Q and raises it up 4,000. A big stack at my end of the table re-raises him enough to put him all in. Gordon decides to fold and this leaves him in dangerously low shape. He goes all in under the gun with about 550. I look down in middle position and I have Kc,Jc. It folds to me and I shove all-in. I think Gordon is ahead of me and I am trying to isolate and pick up the rest of the blinds. Everyone else folds and he has 4,2 offsuit. He hits a 2 on the flop to take the lead but I spike a King on the end and he's out in 10th. The top five make the money.
It gets down to 7 of us and I find myself getting blinded down to a medium sized stack when a wonderful thing happens; a 3-way all in and 2 are eliminating putting the rest of us in the money.
The big stack at the tables starts tilting a little when he loses a hand or two on bad beats and I call his all in with A 7. He has KQ and hits a queen on the flop. I hit an ace on the river and I'm a big stack again. I use my chips to defend my blinds and steal a few others and we are soon down to 3 players. We strike a deal with a 3-way chop and we each get $600.

Saturday I played another tourney at The Gold Strike. It's a $125 NL freezeout. I played this tournament but I don't really have much to tell you about. There were 63 entries and 1st paid a little over 2 grand. I had no cards the whole time and it was a very aggressive table. I never felt I had a great chance to steal or get any of these folks to fold their hands. I just blinded down for an hour and a half waiting for cards that never came. I finally got 8h,9h in the big blind and was able to see a flop. I hit 2 more hearts on the flop and shoved my small stack all-in. I get called by a big stack that is chasing an Ace high flush so I'm basically drawing dead.

Saturday night I played some $4-$8 limit and went red-hot for an hour and a half and won a few hundred. I checked my cell phone as I left and saw that I had missed a call from Okie-Vegas. I quickly ducked in to Replay's Bar and prepared to return the call. It was awesome getting to talk to you guys. I know you had a great time and I will definitely be there next year!!!