Tonight I played in a $20 buy-in NL Hold 'Em tournament in Towson. I bought decks of cards for Jerry so I was able to enter the tournament for free but needed to rebuy at the end of the first hour. Out of 21 participants, I finished 11th. I was pleased with my play overall. The only reason I was low on chips right before the final table was 2 or 3 outdraws that took a bit of my stack. However, I think I lost as little of my stack that I could have in each of the situations which I am very happy about. The rebuy situation: I attempted a blind steal with Tc2c, and BB raised all-in (more than me). Just then, Jerry says the break is at the end of this hand. So I call, hoping to get lucky and if not, planning to pay the $20 buy-in fee to get 1000 chips. He flips over AA and prevails. No biggie. I don't think it was a poor play. I busted out 11th when in SB and the action was folded to me. I see A8o and go all-in hoping to get the BB. He ("river rat") calls with KQo and catches a Q on the flop. Ah well. I believe this to be my only mistake in the tournament. This close to the final table I do not think it was the right play. I really think I should have folded it to him because I know that he likes to chase cards a lot and he was the table chip leader at the time. I noticed tonight that sometimes I am a little too verbal about hands after they have finished. I often give a little information about my cards when most of the time I should not be giving any information at all away. Tonight someone "accused" me of a position bet and so I showed them my flopped set (pocket 2's) to prove them wrong. Definately a stupid move. A funny occurrence happened when I was in BB and everyone folded to me. Normally in this situation, I would not have looked at my cards and so they would go straight to the muck. However, for some reason as action came to the SB I looked down to see a black ace. SB folds and I, now interested in what the other card is, look down to see the other black ace in my hand. I have made it a point to not look at my cards until the action is to me for a couple of reasons: 1. so as not to give any information away based on my reaction to the cards, and 2. so I do not start developing my strategy for that hand before others have acted. I can feel my game getting better for every tournament I play in. Notable finishes: Joe finished 10th and Jerry finished 3rd. 1st and 2nd position -- who I didn't know -- split.

Source: pat o's poker