9 SNG $5 + .50 End 2nd 121 hands

Mixed play with ups & downs, but in the end, with patience some of the time, I held on into the money.

Hand 39. Five players, blinds 50/100. I have 985 chips. Am BB w/Qd 5d. BT big stack bets 3 BB (300) and I decide to go all-in and hope for the best. BT calls and shows Ah 6c, two overcards. Flop 10c 3h 10s. No help to me. Turn 5s. I pair my 5. One card to go. River 9c. I win. I was very lucky there!! I now have 2020 chips.

Hand 68. Badly played by me. Four players, blinds 80/160, I have 3170 chips (2nd high stack), and I'm BB w/Qc 6h. UTG & BT limp, SB folds, & I check. Flop 3c Qd Jd. I pair my Q but I have a pretty weak kicker. I check, UTG bets 160 into the 560 pot, BT folds and I decide to raise to 560 to see what they'll do. If UTG calls it will be a little more than 1/2 their 990 remaining chips. At this point I feel my play was ok. They reraise to 960, leaving them with 190 chips, and I reraise 1360 to put them all-in, they call showing Qs 9c. Paired Q with a better kicker. I should have folded on their reraise. Turn 10d. River 9d. I lose & am down to 1860 chips and the short stack. From here on I'm playing a mixture of a waiting game and trying for steals of the blinds.

Hand 75 was interesting in that a very tight player AA was raised post flop to all by the big stack who had J 9. The board ended up 2h jh 3s Js Kc. A's busted and we are now down to three players. I've made the money.

Hand 84. I have pocket 4's, am BT, and limp in w/200 bet, SB calls, BB checks. Flop 8c 9c 8s. No help to me. SB bets 200, BB raises to 600, I fold, SB calls. Turn Qd. SB checks, BB bets 800 into the 1800 pot and SB calls w/their last 540 chips. SB shows 10d 6d, two gutshot straight draws. River 5c, BB wins. We are now HU, BB has 10,980 chips and I have 2,520 chips.

Hand 97 my K7 beats his K6 and I'm up to 5800 chips. The highest I got was a bit over 6000 chips and we did a lot of trading back & forth.

Hand 121. I have 3730 chips to 9770 chips, blinds are 150/300, I'm BB w/Qh 10d. SB opens with a 3 BB bet (900) and I decide to challenge him with an all-in raise. It would be nice if he would fold but he calls showing Kh 10c. He has me covered. .The board plays out Ac 6h 3d Jd 4s. I lose and finish 2nd.

Overall, I feel good about most of my plays.