There were 25 players at the close of registration. There was a lot of very bad play in the early going, with players getting all-in with top pairs and draws, and a few players went out.
I was getting very good cards and winning most of my pots preflop, but just gradually going through the gears until I was in 3rd or 4th place, when I played a hand really, really stupidly, and lost most of my chips.
See if you can spot the error here:
https://www.replaypoker.com/hand/replay/517630417
I guess I knew he must have the flush, but I didn’t want to let go my set of Queens and I had been running lucky and become overconfident and had won several pots against this guy, so there it was.
However, what pleased me was that I was able to fight right back and win back all my chips and then some with some judicial preflop raising, and snuck onto the final table where just 4 players out of the 9 would be paid. I still didn’t think I would get in the money, but stuff happens, and after a couple of lifetimes there were just 4 of us left. I was bottom stack and shoved with a pair of pocket 6s and was called by the tournament leader with 99. Naturally this being RP, I won the hand. and now I was the leader and the leader was the small stack.
I flattened my former flush tormentor with AQ vs his KJ, in this fun hand,
https://www.replaypoker.com/hand/replay/517639967
Then another stack who had been crippled was dismembered, and we were just two survivors in the single-seater lifeboat.
It was two overcards vs a pair of 2s, and I lost. Once again injustice had been served on RP and the villain had won, as they nearly always do, and all I had for a consolation prize was 6 million chips.