Won my first hand of the tournament!  Up $1700.

First to act, I started with 55.  I called $100.  Two callers.  Flop was 972.  I bet $600.  One guy calls.  Turn is a 4.  I bet $800.  He calls.  River card is a J.  I bet $1200.  He stews for awhile and then folds his probable pair of nines.

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Bad hand - I have A10 on the button.  Five guys, acting before me, just call 100.  I raise to 600.  Four of them call.  I get a great flop - 10 5 3.  I bet 800.  Two guys call.  Turn is a J.  I bet 1200.  I get raised to 4000.  I should have folded, but I call as does the other guy in the hand.  The river is anothing card, and the raiser goes all in.  The other guy folds, and then so do I.  I kept thinking that this guy had nothing because he didn’t raise preflop.  But I guess I was wrong.  He was probably playing a small pair, and made three of a kind on the flop.

I’m down to 13,400 from my original starting stack of 20,000.  No worries - lots of poker left to play.  Just need to tighten up for now.