After everyone had eventually trickled in to Terry's place in Issaquah by 6:30pm on March 3rd, and after we had gotten the tables arranged, chips divided, and the tournament director operational, we began the third satellite tournament and 11th game of the season. Eleven Ragged Ace veterans and one new player took cards on the felt and when it was all finished, a second time player (with our group) walked away with the first place prize. We used Terry's clay chips, experimented a bit with the blind levels at the end of the game to try to keep the blinds from going out of control, and though everyone played a very good game, it was a rollercoaster night for most players at the final table as the chip stacks ebbed and flowed.
The new face at the game was Mike Brewer, a co-worker of Darin and Peter who loves to play poker, and from what I understand (I wasn't at his table so don't have first hand knowledge) he's a good player. Mike was knocked out fairly early in the game but he's ready to have another run at it on the 17th.
The game started with Mike dealing to an Aces table consisting of John, "Action" Abi, James, Brad, and Peter "the Black Hole" while Rob started the night dealing to the Suits table with Terry, Clark, "Monkey Boy" Darin, Sue, and Rich rounding out the field.
At 6:40 the cards were in the air and the game was on. It would be a good solid 2 hours (5 blind levels) before the first player was made a rail bird but it took only 25 minutes to knock out three more players to get us down to eight and the final table. It all started with Rich calling all-in with KQs against Clark's QQ followed by Peter five minutes later getting eliminated by "Action" Abi. Mike took a bad beat from Brad after the blinds moved up to 80/160 followed by James going out 2 minutes later on the final table bubble when his cards couldn't hold up against John. We combined to a single table at 9pm and that is when all the real fireworks began.
Before I continue, I'd like to make a note that John,over the first two tournaments he has played with the Ragged Aces, has put on a clinic for delivering and receiving bad beats. In fact, I don't think I've seen one person involved in so many. It almost seemed like when he had the best hand he would get drawn out against, and when he had the worst, he would draw out. It made for quite the roller-coaster stack for John this last tournament and at one point during the final table he was down to 4 chips worth $400.
As the perfect example of his uncanny ability to start a hand with the best of it and take/deliver a bad beat, I offer this example hand: John starts the hand with pocket Kings and goes all-in over Sue's all-in who holds pocket Queens. 
Terry, sitting in the small blind short stacked has little to do but call them both with any two cards hoping to triple up and does so with A3o. The flop hits both Sue and Terry giving Sue Quad Queens and Terry a pair of Aces. John is now dead to 2 outs or runner's for the straight (about 8% he'll redraw to win) or he's going to the rail. The turn is a miracle third King and actually gives him a 2% chance to win the whole hand. The final card is a 3s which two-pairs Terry but the main pot goes to Sue and the side-pot keeps John alive sending Terry to the rail.
For all these dramatic suck-outs and redraws, we've christened John, "Bad Beat" and I've added him to our knickname page.
With the final table together, "Action" Abi was dealing to Brad, Clark, "Bad Beat" John, Darin "Monkey Boy", Rob, Sue, and Terry. Sue, Terry, and Darin were on short stacks, Clark, "Action" Abi, and "Bad Beat" John were on the big stacks with everyone else fairly equal. Three blind levels and almost an hour of tough play would go by before Terry succumbed as the first elimination from the final table, the knock-out blow delivered by Sue as outlined above.
"Action" Abi was felted 25 minutes later by "Bad Beat" John and then an interesting string of events took place. Sue, Brad, and Darin "Monkey Boy" were all extremely short stacked against the big stacks of "Bad Beat" John, Clark, and Rob. Sue was forced to go all-in a couple of times including the quad draw-out outlined earlier. Brad and "Monkey Boy" split a couple of pots where Brad was ahead and then "Monkey Boy" went on a tear.
It all started when Darin's paired Kings knocked out Brad in round 13 and crippled Rob. This was "Monkey Boy's" first hit of four for the night. Next, he finished off Rob on the bubble and then was up against an all-in by Sue where he and John checked it down. John would win the main pot of the hand but was short one chip on eliminating Sue, so "Monkey Boy" got credit for the hit. Sue ended the tournament in 4th place and essentially got to play the night for free.
Three handed, "Monkey Boy" was able use his big stack to pressure Clark while he was in the Big Blind raising practically every hand. Clark finally took an all-in stand with A3s and got called by Darin's K5o. It was looking good for Clark as the flop paired his A but "Monkey Boy" would draw out trip 5's on the river to knock him out in 3rd place.
Down to heads-up, Darin had a huge 5:1 chip lead over "Bad Beat" John but by the end, it didn't matter. John used his moniker against Darin a number of times, including the final hand where he went all-in with AcKs and was a 60:40 dog against "Monkey Boy's" all-in call with JcJs. The flop was good for Darin giving him two pair and a 75% chance at winning the hand and crippling John. But the turn brought the Ace leaving Darin dead to 2 outs. The river didn't bring the 4% re-draw and "Bad Beat" John won his first Ragged Aces tournament.
Congratulations to everyone who played the game, it was a well played tournament by everyone. John won his first black chip and Darin continues to place high in tournaments this year! Darin moved up to second place on the leader board and there was a lot of movement from 7th place on down, most notably Sue moved up two place, Rob up one, John up 7 and Brad up 5. James and Darin are the leaders for most improved players in my estimation but Terry, Sue, Rob, and Casey are in the running. With four "kills" this game, Darin has exploded into the lead for the Bounty Hunter trophy but as we have seen, this can change with one game. 
I hope to see you all back again on March 17th, there are 5 games left to play before the championship (counting a game at Rich's) and I'm hoping we can convince Terry to host one more game (April?)!