Badger Poker...I finished where?

Tuesday night at Rock Bottom should have been ugly. It was one of those night where, once I sat down and played a couple of hands, I realized it would be a short night. My game sucked. I was playing some bad cards and paying to see cards. One cannot win consistently going for gutshots, yet that is what I was doing. I avoided one bullet though. Playing out of the big blind with 9 8, flop came 3 3 8. I called a 1000 bet. Turn came a K. Guy who had bet 1000 previously only bet 500. I put him to the test and raised to 1500. He called. When a rag hit the river, he came put me all in for my remaining 3500 (yes, I had bled down to 3500 within 20 minutes, that is how bad I was playing). As disgusted as I was with my play, I refused to go down on two pair with my high pair being an 8. I mucked and he showed his pocket Kings. Good part of this was I noticed his betting pattern. He had drained some chips from me earlier when I had Q J in the small blind. I had called his preflop bet of 1200 and the flop had come K Q 9. He bet out 2000 and I folded. It seemed he was slow playing his big pairs, opting for a small raise and raising big with his ace and face. I was on to him now, but it would take a while for me to use the info to my advantage. I make an attempt to knock the Brutha out when I catch J J. I bet 1000 to put him all in. He shows A 2. Flop comes J 4 5. Of course, the turn would be a 3 to give him the straight and more importantly, life. He would go on a nice streak even though he was playing anything conncected or suited. But he still played better than the Albino. Albino made classic/stupid mistake. He bled chips faster than I did and eventually gave someone 5000 of his last 5600 in one hand. He paid the guy off on the flop and turn, but folded at the river and would call in his last 600. WTF? At the end of the first break, I was at 2500. Other friends from work, Pete, Kevin, and Corey were doing much better. I had my little stack and they all had what looked like mountains to me. I knew my only move would be to move all in with a good hand and soon.
I was in the big blind when we started the second session. Got dealt the big Q 9 to start. There were 4 people in the hand when the board came up rags. It checked around. Hey, free cards. Turn was another rag. Checked around. River was a 9. Heck, toss the red chip. One caller who had A high and I just about double up. I don't get much more to play for a while. Try to defend my blinds but I just give chips out again. Blinds move up to 500/1000 and I am just slowly melting away. Still get nothing and hit the next break. Don't know what I am doing here. I look over to see some commotion at another table where everyone is standing. Some dud catches his card on the river and pumps his fist in the air. I see Pete roll his eyes and look away from the clown. I chuckle wondering what happened over there as the dud whoops it up. I comment to someone how it must have been his skill the lucked that card out for him.
Blinds have been kicked up to 1000/2000 and I am screwed. Sitting in the big blind with my last 2200, I push the 200 in without even looking at my cards. There is one caller. They ask to flip and I tell them no. Let's make it a bit more dramatic. The show the flop A 10 2. They start talking about how I may have deuces underneath. Turn is a rag, river an A. The other guy, the Brutha, turns over Q 6 suited (typical of what he was playing). I turn my first card, a 4. Second card is a 10. I am still alive!
Next hand, in the small blind, I get J J. I push again. Only the big blind calls. He has an ace. My jacks hold up. I double again! Next hand, I get A 2. They want me to push a third time. I think about it, even count out how much I have, but decide to fold. Big blind raised 5000 to force small to fold. I wouldn't have caught anything so my muck was good. A couple hands later, I would catch 8 8. I called a 2000 blind on the guy who had the pattern. Pattern man checked pre flop but came out swinging on a flop of K 8 J. He bet out 2000 and I pushed. He folded. I was finally over the 10k staring point. Strangely though, the field was getting quite thin and it was somewhat early in the night. We are down to about 26 people as our table goes down to 5. I look and see 3 other tables playing, with room for our table at the others. The director comes over to chip us up. With my odd chips, I am walking from that table with 17000. He does break us and I am going in between the button and the blinds to save myself a bit of money and time. That is one key strategy to use in the tourney. If you are going to be moved, look around. They do not assign you so you can take advantage of the situation and escape some blinds if you need to.
So I move in to the next table to see Pete, Kevin and Corey still with their mountains looking pretty good. Blinds are sitting at 5000/10000. I get chipped up to 20000 when they get rid of the greens. I don't play anything until I hit the blinds. We have gone under the 20 people so I will get some points. I am amazed at this as I started so bad. But everytime I pushed at the higher limits, I survived. I am surprised to still be here. I am not surprised to be stuck in the big blind and see K 4. Kevin, under the gun, moves all in with 35000. It folds around to me. I look again and think. I am committed here. Any two cards can win. No one else at the table is really short stacked either so I call my last 10000 in there. Kevin flips over A Q. I throw my hand up. Flop comes with a K. He gets no help and I am now at 45000. Pete would go out soon followed by Kevin. Corey would have a good stack to work with. I didn't catch much again until the blinds came around to me. One guy had pushed all in with 55000. I looked down to see 9 9. I had played against the Cowboys fan a couple times before. I knew he was aggressive and expected to see at least an ace from him. I called his all in. He showed A 10. I was done when an A hit and didn't catch any help. I ended up 13th. Not bad for some crappy play earlier. Plus I had lasted longer than Kevin or Pete. Nice!