It should have been mine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Howled poor Mark, after playing conservatively most of the night he started catching cards towards the end. He accumulated a huge chip lead as the final 3 came down to Mark, Nick & Lisa. Lisa played spoiler plenty of times with her kings but finally was overcome when Nick & Mark teamed up on her. The heads up was a classic battle between the veteran who's been to the winner circle plenty of times and the relative newcomer who had yet to win a game. There were two hands that stood out and proved to be the death knell for Mark. He had strong hands each time, one was a flush and the other was a straight, both strong hands in heads up. The first time, with his flush hand, Mark pushed Nick all in. When the cards were turned up, Nick had 2 pair & Mark showed his flush. With only the river to go Mark seemed assured of victory. But the river wasn't kind to Mark and Nick drew one of the only cards that could have helped him when a 9 was revealed. So Nick doubled up but Mark wasn't out yet. Play continued with it costing $900 just to see a flop. Once again, Mark's strong hand, a straight, was beaten once again by Nick's full house, including 9s once again. So for the first time in TNP history, Nick won his first game and took Crystal's bounty. Congratulations Nick and respect to Mark for playing such a good game. Here's how the rest of the night turned out.

8. Crystal 1
7. Markus 2
6. Deb 3
5. Chris 4
4. Jeff 5
3. Lisa 7 (Including 1 bonus point for quad jacks)
2. Mark 8
1. Nick 11 (Including Crystal's bounty point)

What a great night of poker. See you all next week and may all your cards be live and your pots be monsters.