Well, my chips won

Satellite for the Main Event on Bugsy's. 51 runners, 1st gets the seat, 2nd gets $200, 3-51 get the knowledge of a job (insert adverb here) done.

I finished in 4th. It's disappointing, I feel I was clearly the best player at the table, but I lost a coinflip at the end when the chipleader overplayed his pocket sixes. Again, I'm actually remarkably disappointed, but I know that in any tournament, even one of only 51 runners, I'm going to have to win a coinflip somewhere in the end game. I just could not do it when my life was on the line.

I did get lucky early on, when I caught one of my many outs against another player, but even that was compromised by a third player who was riding along with his flush draw that hit the river. I then used some good skill, timing and judgment to go from there, I became the chipleader shortly thereafter - and then my stack ballooned even more.

I had about an hour long card dead period, though, where I was mostly treading water. I actually was losing chips during this period, but I wasn't overplaying crap as I sometimes do in these situations; I made sure to keep myself calm and patient. I finally turned myself aroud with a big hand on an A67 board with AK against someone's A5. I called his 20K all in on the flop, with like one second left on the clock - there's no better feeling than being right in those spots.

The final table was shortly thereafter, and I just played solid, disciplined poker. I'd make a few moves when I felt the situation was appropriate, but I never showed down garbage, certainly. I kept a consistent image of a solid/aggressive player who should not be reckoned with. I think it was this image that led the other player to make the coinflip play at the end, partially because I think he felt he could get me to lay down (I had laid down before to reraises) and partially because he probably didn't think he'd be able to outplay me heads up.

Give him credit, then. He was something of a talisman with coinflips, winning them. While I don't like his play, and I would not have done it, maybe he recognized that with the circumstances of the table, it was his best move. If not, well, it was my chips that won.