A very Fillmaff finish

Full Tilt $11,500 Guaranteed ($69+9, 331 entrants). Nothing to report of note along the way, except I had one major suckout (my T3s vs K5 on a flop of Td5s5c, caught the flush redraw on the turn but spiked a T on the river instead) and from there was top ten in chips most of the way from ~100 on in.

Entered the final table with a pretty good-sized chiplead. Stole the blinds first hand from the SB, then next hand won a very big pot with AQ to jump to a very good sized chiplead - about 1/3 of the chips in play, more than 2nd and 3rd combined.

Blinds at 1200/2400 with 300 ante, I make it 6k from the button with QJo and the big blind pushes for just under 22k. Getting 2:1 as a likely live underdog I call and he flips ATo. A good place to show off early that I'm willing to call when I raise, and be able to show down a decent hand. He hits an ace on the flop, i have a pair and gutshot on the turn but don't further improve and double him up.

With six remaining, I get no action on KK and take the blinds. Next hand I get 88 and make the same raise and get a caller on the button. Flop is good for me, T77, and I lead for half the pot and take it down.

Player to my left's 99 > AK and we're down to five. Next hand same player's KK > AJ and we're down to four. I'm now second in chips with 155k, player to my left with 226k.

Blinds at 2k/4k UTG short stack raises to 12k. With KQo I re-raise to 40k, enough to put him all-in. He folds and I jump in to the chiplead barely.

Got leapfrogged in chips badly on the last bubble when ThatsTheGame was on my left with the same sized stack (or slightly larger) and the two small stacks were on my right. He played it well and put pressure on me, and then had the cards and the stack to KO several players at the final table including #6, #5, #4 and #3. Despite my having a good stack, we jumped in to heads up and I was down over 2:1 in chips.

We chip back and forth a few hands. Pretty straightforward play. He was smart and appropriately aggressive.

K3 flopps top two pair. I do the crab dance and drag a decent pot, but not as big as it could have been when a scare card for him (three flush on board) hits the turn. He's still 2:1 lead though.

I end up getting my money in the middle for the first time heads up with the following hand: He calls from the small blind and I check with 87o. The flop comes 4-9-6 rainbow. He standard c-bets the flop, I raise to about 25k with 125k or so behind. he puts me all-in, and I call expecting to be about a 40%-60% dog - turns out he's holding56o and I'm in even better shape, about 46% to his 54%: three remaining fives, four tens, three eights, three sevens, for twelve outs twice. However its not my night, as the turn is a deuce and the river a three for added insult, giving him the 2-6 straight. As the master Fillmaff himself would say: "Second place, second place, disqualified for urinating on the table... second place..."

So second place finish for $3,654.24 (pic). First paid $5,709.75. Still a very nice cash and a nice night. It wasn't till i went and updated my Top Ten Finishes list that I realized this was my biggest ever cash. Big thanks to Poker Superstar Rizen for sweating my action - and all the mentoring along the way - as well as everyone sweating from 2+2.

Also not nearly as exciting, but wanted to write it up to have a public record: I also nearly cashed in a Party $109 $2k Added tournament during the middle stages of the Full Tilt tourney, but made a stupid move near hitting the money. Holding TT I decided it was a good idea to come over the top of an UTG min-raiser preflop, when I held a healthy enough stack to just call and take a flop with position - might be results oriented thinking, but I really felt like I'd made a mistake: blinds were 400/800 with a small ante and UTG minraises to 1600. I've got just below T10k, hovering about 2k below average stack with ~80 left (50 paid). The UTG minraise is used by so many players holding AA or KK I should have exercised a little caution, instead I just immediately pushed over the top and immediately regretted it when he flipped kings. I felt after that it was a case of "the chips I lost having so much more value than the chips I stood to gain" that it wasn't worth taking a likely coinflip there. His UTG minraise range is either hands that I'm crushing that he folds (and that I can probably outplay postflop if he doesn't hit a set) or overcards where I'm flipping (and that I can get away from if action indicates he hits the flop). Just would have been a good spot to play poker, instead of being overly aggressive.