Thanks for the kind words Mark. I'll let you know if and when I hear about any local tournaments.

I was at table 3 - seat 7. I wanted to test the waters early to see what kind of players we had at our table.

Here are a couple memorable hands.

1st hand I everyone folds to me and I raise with 89d. Everyone folds except for the small blind.
Flop is 7c-8h-9s. He bets $50 and I raise to $100. He calls.
Turn is the 2h. He checks, I bet $200 and he calls.
River is an Ace. He checks and I bet another $200. He calls.
He had J-10 and flopped a straight. I was stunned. He called to the river. I was shocked that he never raised once.

After 1 hand I am down to $1300 in chips.

For the next 2 levels my stack jumps up and down. THe level is $200-$400 w/$50 ante.

I am one the button with a pair of 10's. Everyone folds to me and I raise to $800. SB folds and bb calls.
Flop is K-Q-J. Turn 4, River a 6. We both check the flop, turn & river.
BB anounces 2 pair and I muck my pair of tens. BB then shows only an ACE. Dealer and I immediately ask to see his other card which is a six which only gives him the pair of sixes.

At this point I am not sure if I am angrier at him or myself for being so stupid for mucking my hand. I explain to the other player that he was a bush league piece of excretement and he apologizes. I then explained to him that I made a stupid mistake by mucking my hand but that I also had him beat with my pair. He apologized during the break but I told him to beat it.
This happened to be the last hand of level 4 and we went for a 10-minute break.

In the next level (400-800 & $75ante) our table breaks and I am shuffled off to another table. I am in the cutoff the very first hand and am dealt AKc.
The guy to my right calls $800, I raise all-in and the button and blinds fold. The guy to my right calls my raise which puts him all in.
I am returned $50 in chips as I had him covered. He turns over AQo.
He hits a Q on the flop and doubles up.

The next hand is my last hand.
I have 43c and throw in my $50. Another guy who is short stacked go all in with QJ. The bb calls with KJd (he is mr. bigstack).
To make a long story short the BB wins the hand with K high.
There were 3 hands and not one of us hit a pair.

I had a pretty good time and promised myself that I would never make such a stupid mistake mucking my hand before seeing another players 2 cards.