WSOP freeroll

Three days in Prague was the ideal preparation for my WSOP freeroll...well, almost.
My plane back from Czech was 90 mins late so I had to listen to the first-half of the England v Ecuador match on the radio.
Caught Beckham's goal, and saw England play poorly but without incident against a very defensive minded team.
They looked tired and lacked drive, but I still think they have a good chance of beating Portugal in the quarter finals.
Anyway, after the game I moved on to my PC and waited for the WSOP freeroll to start.
There were 39 registered for the game with $5,000 WSOP seat for the winner and $500 shared between the final nine.
I qualified after playing 2,500 raked hands in May.
Understandably, play started tightly with small pots and mild swings.
I lost an early hand button v big blind when I called a check-raise on the turn (for 5xbb) with top pair and a flush draw against a foe who had turned a str8.
But I got it back quickly when I held Ks and check raised an 8-hi flop.
Nine non-starters were then withdrawn and we were down to 30.
I hovered around 1500 chips for several hands and the table
There were two aggressive players - Villain and DeuceA1 - who were constantly tangling.
Villain took him down in two hands with 9s v Ako when Villain hit a four flush, and then Aqo v a slightly tilty A7o from Deuce.
The blinds were at level II and I raised early with AJs. All folded and it quickly became a raise/fold game round the table.
I won a nice pot at level III with Qs against Draco Malfoy again, in almost identical fashion - calling his 3xbb pre-flop raise then raising a low flop post flop.
My biggest hand came after 45 mins with Js

Table: 3 (Real Money) Seat #4 is the dealer
Seat 1 - ANECHKA ($3540 in chips)
Seat 2 - __VILLAIN__ ($3200 in chips)
Seat 3 - FIGAROCLEO ($1145 in chips)
Seat 4 - DRACO MALFOY ($1000 in chips)
Seat 5 - NIHILISTI ($1410 in chips)
Seat 6 - QUANTICFIVE ($1860 in chips)
Seat 8 - SHUUSH ($1005 in chips)
Seat 9 - THAT FISH ($3155 in chips)
NIHILISTI - Posts small blind $40
QUANTICFIVE - Posts big blind $80
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to QUANTICFIVE [Jc Js]
ANECHKA - Raises $240 to $240
QUANTICFIVE - Calls $160
*** FLOP *** [6s 9c Jh]
QUANTICFIVE - Checks
ANECHKA - Bets $240
QUANTICFIVE - Raises $480 to $480
ANECHKA - Calls $240
*** TURN *** [6s 9c Jh] [9d]
QUANTICFIVE - Checks
ANECHKA - Checks
*** RIVER *** [6s 9c Jh 9d] [9h]
QUANTICFIVE - Bets $400
ANECHKA - Folds
QUANTICFIVE - returned ($400) : not called
*** SHOW DOWN ***
QUANTICFIVE - Does not show
QUANTICFIVE Collects $1480 from main pot

Should have bet the turn but I was trying to let him catch up.

For the next half hour we were playing six handed and I slowly started to get blinded down until I had about $1600 with the blinds at $150.

The next hand couldn't have worked out better. I found As late against THAT FISH he was the most active player on the table - and had re-raised all in 3xbb pre-flop raises along with a couple of other players a few times.
Sure enough, he put me all in with qks and I doubled up.

The very next hand I found 10s and raised 3xbb again. Villain who had called the bb in 1st position called.
An A-10-9 flop, with 2 clubs was almost perfect. Villain led out $600 and instead of calling I raised all-in.
He was there to be taken and I should've fished him in. He was busted out about three hands later.
I was now 3rd out of about 10.
We played five handed for a while and we were soon onto the final table.
I was about 6th at the start of the final table, with about 4000 and blinds at 200.
I found As again and did the standard 3xbb raise but no=one called.
Eight hands later I got Ks, and won about $2000.
I was getting lucky with the hi pairs.

It got quite frenetic after this with lots of pre-flop bets and raises. I feel I didn't make a mistake until we were down to the last 3.
The chip counts were:

Seat 3 - PHANTOMSHARK ($23710 in chips)
Seat 6 - QUANTICFIVE ($8170 in chips)
Seat 8 - WILDSAMOAN ($13610 in chips)

I did my standard 3xbb with Ajo got re-raised by Phantom Shark, who I believed but instead of folding I shoved and lost to his Aq0.

Its only now that I write this do I realise how close I came to winning.
I had a very tight table image, and was starting to make some plays...I coulda outplayed them with the right cards.
I won $100, which is not to be sniffed at but it coulda been so much more.
Phantom ended up winning the $5,000 after a 30 mins heads up battle and deserved the win.

I then won $30 on an AP points freerol, coming 3rd again.

So long for now...