Two nights ago, I was sitting in the lobby of my hotel in Tunica, MS, with about $1,000 in chips in front of me. We were down to 3-handed in our live "sit-n-go," which started each of us out with $300 in chips, and I was trying to get by my last two opponents to win this winner-take-all tournament, when Texas Troll (a top tournament player on UltimateBet and Pokerstars, ranked in PocketFives.com's top 50) comes over and decides he wants to play my cards for me. 3 hands later, I busted out with 93. Thanks a lot, Troll!

One of the things I look forward to the most now, when I go to a live tournament, is meeting new people and seeing others for the first time in person. This trip has been no let down so far, as I've gotten to put a face on so many names.

I came into the hotel lobby at about 3:30 a.m., and everyone was waiting on me. I looked around the table, and starting on my left, I saw Leggggggggggy, Jcgoheels, Texas Troll, Denny Lemieux, Lucky Egg, gator93, OUCourt, OUCourt's boyfriend Matt, and Lobo Loco. This is a sit-n-go field that would strike fear into online players across all the major sites.

I played pretty tight early on, and I watched as Matt was the first one to bust out. He flopped top set and called the all-in bet from Lobo Loco, who only had a straight draw. While Lobo Loco didn't hit his straight, he did hit two running hearts for a flush.

The next big pot came about two hands later when Texas Troll pushed all his chips in before the flop with the AK, only to be called by Denny Lemieux, who held the 45. When the third spade hit on the river, Texas Troll was down to his last few chips.

Everyone was having a good time and playing loose, and I was pretty much just hangin out, chatting it up with all my new friends and taking occasional small pots.

Despite winning that big pot early, Denny Lemieux wasn't quite at the top of his game, and he was one of the next few to bust out, along with Texas Troll, OUCourt, Leggggggggggy, and gator93. OUCourt and Leggggggggggy both busted out on the same hand, when OUCourt's A10 and Leggggggggggy's JJ ran into Lucky Egg's AA.

Everything was looking good for the egg, but he ended up dumping a large % of his chips to Jcgoheels, who was not so quietly building up a huge stack of chips. He had already picked up KK four different times in the tournament, and had won several large pots. I hadn't even seen a pocket pair! I busted Egg a few hands later when he pushed all in with the A2 and I called from the small blind with the AJ.

This all got us down to the final 3, and things were looking good until the whole 93 debacle. That's the last time I ever let a pro give me advice! Lobo Loco ended up winning the title--congrats to him!

This was a great time for everyone involved, and I was really glad to get to meet all of these people (I'd only met 3 of them before that night). I found in Aruba, and again in Tunica, that most of the people I play poker with online are really great people to be around in real life, and I can't wait until the next time we all get together.