+EV Trip

I just walked in the door and I'm glad to be home. I had a great time in Tunica and the cards ran my way pretty much the whole trip.
Our flight on Sunday wasn't until after the tournament I wanted to play at Gold Strike had already started so I just settled in to a cash game for the evening and made plans to play the tournament the next day at The Grand. I won about a hundred at a 4/8 limit table.
The Saturday tournament started at 1:00. It was a 65 dollar buy-in with 53 entrants; not exactly the tournament I wanted to play but here we go: The blind structure was fairly good for the first hour and a half and they started us with 3,000 chips which kept it from being a crap shoot early. I just stayed tight and smart for a while and worked on getting reads and picking my spots. I'm not crazy about my first big hand but it worked: K 8 suited in the big blind and a guy in mid-position min-raises it to 200. One caller in late position, small blind folds. I decide to see a flop and run if I don't hit it hard. Instead I hit it scary... K 9 8...yikes, I could get in trouble here (stay smart I keep thinking). The bets don't get too crazy and they both slow down after I smooth call a large bet and call and I win the hand for a nice pot. Then I go card dead and the blinds go up and up.
17 players left in and I'm probably the shortest stack left with 3,000. The blinds are 500/1000 with an ante of 200 and I am the big blind with A9. It folds to the small blind and he bets me all in. I call and he has KJo. We hit nothing an I win with Ace high to double to 6,000. The very next hand I get AK of spades in the small blind. There's three people all in before it gets to me and I decide I have to go with them and the big blind goes as well. I quintuple up when my King pairs on the river and a big stack wins the side pot to eliminate the other 3 players. This propels me to the chip lead and in two hands I went from the shortest stack to the chip leader. The blind structure was terrible after this and the rest of the tourney went fast with a lot of pushes. I stayed out of the way and let them kill each other off for the most part. I knocked out the 3rd place finisher but I was much shorter than the leader so I made a deal with him for a little more money than 2nd was paying.
I played some more 4/8 limit and won a couple hundred that evening. They were also spreading 1/2 no limit and 2/5 no limit the whole time I was there but I was really enjoying the limit game. I'll more than likely play some no limit next month when I'm there.
I'm almost positive I'm going to Atlantic City in the middle of March as well. I have meetings near DC and it's not a terrible drive from there.
Good luck at the tables everyone!!