I was recently on vacation in Orlando, Florida. I did the whole Disney thing. It was great weather the whole trip, well above average temps. And, for someone from New York in January, was the best weather you can get, lol. Disney itself was a very nice trip. Any trip I’m involved with always ends up with a trip to a casino, lol. So, this time I headed over to the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Tampa. I went into a 9 player No Limit Hold’em tournament for $120 buy-in ($100 to prize pool, $20 to casino for tournament fee). Total prize pool was $900. Everyone starts with $1500 in chips.
There were quite a few hands I was involved in but two stand out. In one pot, I was against only one other opponent, who did not raise before the flop. I looked at my cards and had a pair of nines, a pretty strong hand vs. one opponent. I had the option to raise, but decided to “slow play” my hand, or try to deceive by not letting my opponent know how strong I was. On the flop, there was an Ace, a Four and a Five. So, unless my opponent had an Ace, which I highly doubted because he didn’t raise before the flop, or a Two and a Three, my pair of nines was probably the best hand. He checked (opted not to bet), and I bet $100 into a $200 pot. He raised all-in, another $600. After a quick review of the hand from the beginning, I called his bet. He was bluffing, and he had a Six and a Nine in his hand. No pair, no draws. Two more cards came and my hand took down the pot, and knocked out a player.
In another big hand, I was first to act, and looked down at a pair of Queens. Monster! I raised to $900 (not to get technical, but the normal three times the big blind raise). Everyone folded except the last player, who re-raised all-in for a total of $4500. This actually made me the one who was “all-in”. But I quickly called, because I figured I had the best hand, and I’m not folding Queens anyway, lol. He turned over a pair of Jacks. So before the flop, I 'm about a 4-1 favorite. We both ended up with a full house, but mine was better. I had three Nines and two Queens. He had three Nines and two Jacks. This did not knock out a player, but severely diminished the chip count of the chip leader at that time. He was also the best player out of all of my opponents, so it was a nice.
After about two hours of play it was on to a short heads-up match, which I started with a commanding chip lead. I finished 1st of 9, with a final chip count of $13,500. Top 3 places were paid and 1st place received $450. Not bad for two hours of work. 
Anyway, I just wanted to tell a little poker story, lol.
And on the same subject, I recently started a poker website. Some features include up to date coverage of the World Series of Poker and World Poker Tour as well as poker news from around the world and great online poker room promotions. Please feel free to go over to http://www.ultimatepokerforum.com and look around. I’ve been doing alot of work on it, although, it still is very much a work in progress. Please visit my website and any comments, questions, or suggestions are welcome.
I would watch it all the time if I did though.