Horseshoes and Hand Grenades

So I just finished up an online poker tourney. I've never done one before, but this one was free, so what the hell. And the grand prize was a spot on TV on Celebrity Poker Showdown, so that's not bad right? They've got a couple of entry tourneys left, so if you've got a couple hours to kill, have some fun.

So the one I entered, there were over 1600 people. You got 1500 in chips, and at one point, I was up to 42000 in chips. I lasted until there was only 88 people left. I'm pretty proud of myself, considering I don't consider myself a serious poker player.

I got trapped on my last hand. I had pocket nines, and I played it well. I just got screwed. The flop came up as 9-2-2, which gave me a full house on the flop. I went all in ( 35000 or something at that point ), and got called by someone with over 75000 chips. He had a pair of twos, and that was all she wrote.

Everything was great, until I got moved to that table. Even with 40000 some odd chips, I was the short stack there, and there were a couple of marginal hands that I could have played, but not when you're matched up against someone with twice the money as you.

I can't imagine the people that do nothing but play in real money tournaments online all day. You can't read the other players, it wasn't nearly as fun as playing with real people. Of course my experience of poker has been with friends and alcohol, so maybe that's why.