Wow. If I had called a big bet with 69 (and taken a massive pot with a boat against two people with AT/AQ) and then, the next hand, called another big bet with 55 (and taken another massive pot against great hands with another boat) late in the game, I could have won a 24" LCD or an Xbox 360 today!

But I didn't. Those decisions seemed pretty smart at the time. Hehe.

Instead, I finished the top PokerStars.net player in the tourney of 1473 (which also includes PokerStars.com players obviously), 2nd in Canada (assuming people declare their city honestly), and well enough to win an iPod nano!

I'm really proud of myself. I was rooting for an Xbox 360 but it wasn't to be... once I got moved from being in chip lead to a table where the chip leader was directly to my right, the writing was on the wall. :-)

I led the tourney several times, and for a very long time I was in the top 3, top 5, and then in the top 15 until near the end.

Honestly I didn't expect to do anywhere near that well, but I did think I'd be above average, knowing the competition were from a population of bloggers and not necessarily a population of poker enthusiasts (which I am).

I've been trying to pawn off the ipod to the people still in the tourney for a 360, in case one of them isn't a gamer. So far no luck, LOL! Yeah I'm shameless. :-)

Thanks for the game PokerStars, I enjoyed it tremendously, and can't wait for the next one! :-)

Update: I forgot to mention, one had to place at least 36th to win an iPod, and 16th to win an Xbox 360.