Thanks chaps.

It was bittersweet, but I was pleased with the heads up cause I came back from such a deficit and had a great read on the guy so was able to pick my spot and unfortunately it didn't hold up. At least I get to talk about the hand that cost me $1200 when exchanging hard luck stories with other poker players.

I usually play the $30/3s on Party (late evening GMT 5 hours ahead of EST), with the big fields (700-800) and you're right that the play is a minefield. If you get ahead early it's possible to make a push for the finish but you really need good cards far more than at the higher buy-ins to really stand a chance. I can fairly consistently make the money at the things, but it requires a fair bit of luck and a couple of coin-flips. Last night I was able to make it all the way through without really taking any big gambools (having played a few of the $200/15 tourney after winning qualifiers I found this to be even more the case at those levels).

The other thing was the smaller field. I work on the basis of aiming for 10% of the chips to reach the final table and then basically stop playing unless l hit a monster til I get there. With 800 people that's a lot harder than achieving the 21,000 I needed last night. I think I may look for this type of tourney more often.

This effectively doubled my career profit in one hit and as someone who plays for the entertainment with the illusory prospect of one day scoring the big one this was wonderfully encourang and most importantly great fun.

And I've had all of 2 hours sleep as a result