[Skip Brutale]

My roomate was still home today when I woke up so I decided to enter a step 2 that I had a freeroll for. I finished a dissapointing 6th, which looped me back to step 1.

After he left for work it was time; I let the dog out, got some water, locked the door, and entered a step 5. The players directly to my left and right seemed very agressive and somewhat loose so I wound up having to fold a few hands early and this got my chip stack down in the 800's before I adjusted.

A blind steal during 25/50 and a blind defense with QJs brought me back up around 1000. During 50/100 I believe we were 7 handed and I had 900'ish chips and moved in from MP2 with QKs, I was called by the button with AKs but I was able to flop a straight.

Going into the tournament I felt like the step 5 players are probably as good as me if not better so I will probably need to get lucky to do anything. But I also feel that I play well enough that if I get lucky once I can compete for 1st.

Well I felt more confident after this, not just because my stack doubled, but because I'd gotten lucky and felt like I could really compete now. I started getting a couple A's short-handed, a few of my my steals were called but I bluffed the flops and took them all down.

Pretty soon we were 5-handed, then 4-handed, then 3-handed. I had a bad feeling 3-handed like I would finish 3rd. I was lowest on chips and felt confident in my playing ability but just felt bad, like how I felt good about my chances of finishing nicely after the QK hand.

2nd had about 1500 more than me, and the chip leader pushed from his sb when I had A8 in my bb. I felt like if I start folding Aces with mid-kickers I'm just going to get grinded down and I wasnt ready to submit yet.

I called and was dissapointed when he showed 44. As I kind of anticipated, no help came and I finished in 3rd, good for 500 dollars. I seriously needed this money. I dont have a job and only have 80 dollars in my bank account outside of the 100 I have in online poker. I wouldnt have been able to make my rent or car payments without this.

I was of course dissapointed to lose a coinflip there. You always feel like if you win that and double up, become the chip leader, you can work the bubble and everything and finish 1st. 2000 would have been real nice. But I did win with a dominated hand earlier so I cant complain about losing a coinflip. Also the fact that I entered the step 1 3 days ago makes the step 5 seem less big and important to me than if I was working for a long time to reach it.

Well Im very happy with the results of my step 5, I feel like I can play just as well as most of the guys at that level and hope my step 1 freeroll will send me back there again soon.