Ranked in the Top Five

We're not talking U.S. college football. We're talking about where we placed in a Sunday afternoon "turbo tourney" at National League of Poker -- and a top-five finish earned us money there for the second time!

This was a tournament with 484 players -- and a couple of timely pushes gave us big gains. But we also received (some would say) a couple of "big breaks."

Holding A-8 with 640 chips left, another player doubled the blind to 600. We went all-in with the last 40 -- and the raiser then inexplicably folded! An 8 on the board topped one other player, to restore us above 2,000.

We were atop the standings with 21 players left, at 56,380 chips. But we were much lower when we reached the final table -- and only the top five players earned money. But we held on while two players pushed and failed. Then with steep antes, the moment of truth came....

BLINDS: 8,000/16,000/1600 ante

IN THE POCKET: J-2 of diamonds

We're in the big blind, and entered the hand with only around 18,000 chips left. So there's little choice -- we raise all-in, for an extra 2,000 or so. Three of the remaining seven players are in the hand, two of them all-in with us. Sadly for us, the big stack has Q-Q.

ON THE FLOP: 5d-Jc-7c

We hoped for diamonds -- and top pair on the board isn't good enough.

ON THE TURN: 3h

It looks pretty bleak for us....

ON THE RIVER: 2s

"Whoa!" we write in surprise. We make two pair on the river, to win the main pot of $75,480! The two others who went all-in are eliminated, and we sit "in the money" -- and adding a hearty "PTL!"

We were eliminated a few minutes later in fifth place -- but still won ten dollars (first paid 50). It's our first cash win at NLOP since May. And in terms of weekly points, an "investment" of 500 paid off more than 13,000.