I cashed in my Tournament Entry Chip on Ultimate Bet tonight. I won it playing a $13 tournament and it allowed me to enter a $100 tournament. 130 people showed up. The winner receives a trip to the World Series of Poker, valued at $11,000, and 4 other places pay out meager sums.

It was a lot to ask, being my first tournament. I was actually really nervous, but I played well. At one point I was 14th in chips, but I got a horrible run of cards and was slowly blinded to death. Don't get me wrong, I didn't fold every hand, I won a few and lost a few. On hand in particular crippled me, when I had a pocket pair of tens. I was all in on the flop, which seemed to miss both of us. My opponent had a Ace high flush draw, which he hit with my 3rd ten. The river was no help, and that left me in the short stack. I barely had enough to play around twice, and I didn't last much longer than that.

If there's one thing I can say I did wrong: I didn't get aggressive enough when the blinds really started to increase. Of course, I really had a horrible run of cards, rarely seeing as much as an Ace. I ended up in 32nd place; in the top 25%. One thing that I'm sure of: I'll be trying again soon. It was really fun!