Million-Dollar Mike and a $20K Dream

In case you missed it: A New York firefighter named Mike hit the jackpot today on the Fox "Million Dollar Challenge." An 8 on the river gave him a gutshot straight, to defeat Daniel Negreanu in the heads-up "Million Dollar Match."

(Come to think of it, has Negreanu ever reached the finals of NBC Heads-Up? We don't think so.)

Connected with that was another freeroll tournament for $20,000 tonight at PokerStars.Net. The play went incredibly quickly -- and it had to be that way, with 36,664 players registered. Here's how we did:

:00 IN: We start with 10-7 of diamonds. A 10 comes on the flop, and we bet with it. But another player has pocket Queens, and beats us.

We played the first three hands, in fact. K-J didn't pair, and lost. 8-8 was met with an Ace on the flop, and a player with an Ace beat us. We were deflated, until....

:05 IN: K-10 brings K-8-3 on the flop. Our top pair earns $550.

:09 IN: We have Q-7 of clubs. Two clubs come on the flop, and a third lands on the river. We hit a flush! Trouble is, another player hits a full house. We're deflated again.

:12 IN: A-Q brings an Ace on the river. We bet, players fold, and we gain $375.

:20 IN: Q-Q is met with A-A on the flop. Our two pair are good enough, for a pot of more than $1,100.

:31 IN: Q-Q comes again. This time Q-9-3 lands on the flop. After a modest bet is called, a 7 on the turn leads us to go all-in. A caller errs, and suddenly our stack jumps to $4,580.

:37 IN: A-10 is met with an Ace on the flop. That pair leads to $1,700.

:40 IN: We have A-10 of clubs, with $3,155. But a player ahead of us goes all-in. Blinds are 200/400 with antes of 50. What would you do?

We dare to call -- and see our opponent has A-K. The flop is K-J-7. That's followed by a 9 and a 5, and our dream is sunk.

Final score: we take seven pots in 40 minutes. But several other plays with promising hands blow up in our face. We finish number 17,961 -- which out of 36,664 at least gets us in the top half.