I play a lot of local tournaments and can finish in the money 2 or 3 times a month usually but I haven't gotten a first since last Oct.

Well, Monday I went on a tear through a tournament that was slaying people left and right. The tourney set up was $20 buy-in, $10 re-buys for the first hour and a half, and $10 add-on at the break. Buy-in gets you 2000 chips, re-buy same, and add-on gets you 4000. Before the break (in the first hour and a half) I hit two flushes, two straights, a full house and a set. I had 16,000 chips at the break and the average at my table was around 4,000 (before add-ons).

During the break I was thinking, ok, that was fun but your luck is gonna run out. We started back up and good-god-almighty, they kept coming. I was owning my table: basically, unless someone hit top pair on the board all I had to do was bet and take down the pot.

Two hours, two full-houses, seven flushes, three straights, 3 sets, and a myriad of other two-pair/top pair hands later we were at the final table (8 players). I had 55,000 chips and the average between the other players was around 8,000 with the blinds at 500/1000. I just kept telling myself not to make a mistake - the luck was there.

I never lost a hand at the final table and took first for $500. It was the biggest rush I've ever had: over 4.5 hours I had, for sure (maybe more - it's hard to remember), 2 full-houses, 9 flushes, 3 straights, and 4 sets. I didn't even bother counting the number of pairs I hit or pots I took down simply because I had a massive chip lead. It was great. So great in fact I went to another tournament just up the street and took 2nd for $260 but that's another story. When the day was done, between the two tourneys, I had played for 8.5 hours, placed first and second, and took home $670 (winnings minus buy-ins).

Not to bad for an amatuer playing local tournaments...