Best Poker Weekend Ever - Part Three

I made it back to the Crazy Moose with only about 10 minutes to spare before the 40-person final of the $1,000 free roll. As expected, there were a lot of the regular players that I consider to be good players in the final, so I knew I would have my work cut out for me. I do not really remember anything too exciting about this tournament, other than the fact that I was very happy to make it to the final table with a very healthy chip stack.

We took a break right before the final table and when we returned, it was suggested that we all take $100 and call it good. I think there were two of us who declined. I was one of them. I gave this little short speech about how I knew it was free, but I still wanted to give it my best shot and if I got knocked out before the money, that was my choice. For some reason, I just didn't feel that $100 was enough for outlasting 55 people in the qualifier and another 30 in the final so I stuck to my guns. I think a couple of people were annoyed by this, but oh well. I was not the only player who felt this way, but I was definitely in the minority.

We played for about another 30-45 minutes after the break and were down to five players with pretty even chip stacks when the suggestion was made to take $200 each. We all agreed to that, mainly because the blinds were soon to be 10,000 and 20,000 and it was just getting to the point where you had to go all-in and take your chances, no matter what your chip stack was. So, we took a 5-way split. Not bad money for a freebie! TO BE CONTINUED . . .