Poker In The Front

I was actually part of the greatest hand of cards I've ever seen in a live poker game this weekend. It might not be that exciting to some because I've only been in about 10 games over the past 2 years, but it really got the adrenaline flowing. We had six people start a winner takes all Hold 'Em tournament at mi casa last night. Our house is full of relatives and we were kind of tired of kid related activities by 10:00 PM. We all started with $22 in chips. One by one, players were eliminated until it was down to my sister-in-law, my nephew (in 9th grade) and myself. We took turns being the chip leader until my sister-in-law was eliminated around midnight. From that point on, my nephew and I traded top positions until about 1:30 AM when I won a hand on a flush while he had two pairs. After the river I bet $25 and he called....lucky for me. At the time I was probably down $90-$40. Shortly after 2:00 AM I dealt and looked at my pocket cards and immediately forgot what they were - they didn't excite me that much. By this time we had eliminated all quarter and fifty cent chips from the game and $1 was the lowest bet. We both put in $1 to see the flop and I burned and turned the following cards: ten of spades, queen of spades, king of spades. I was too busy saying how surprised I was that we kept flopping possible straights to see what he was doing. He went "All In" for the first time all night. It equalled $50. I was still contemplating what he had but assumed it was a flush. I had a good chance of having/getting a flush myself and since he bet $50, that meant I had $80. I was caught off guard by him going "All In" so quickly since there was only $4 in the pot. I had to look at my cards again and when I did, I almost fell out of my chair....I had a jack and a nine making the straight. This KID was killing me on pots when he had one lousy pair and was folding when I had pocket cowboys or pocket 10's and I wasn't changing my betting pattern at all. He was just literally killing me on knowing when to fold. I decided to risk the $50 and figured if he pulled a straight Ace high he deserved to win...if he didn't have it already, but I thought he had a flush. I matched the bet which shocked him and then he realized the game was over if I had him beat. It was 2:00 AM and we were busy all day and we were both sleep deprived and punchy. We flipped the cards over and what he had surprised me - he had queen/10 giving him 2 pair. Like I said, I was expecting a flush and an easy win - now I had to sweat through two cards knowing that a 10 or a queen was going to turn the tide in his favor in a big way. I burned and turned.....an 8. He did a little dance while I said a little prayer (actually I cursed the deck rather badly)...burned and turned.....another 8. I've never been part of a mini-tournament that ended on a hand when someone had 10's and queen's on the flop and the other person had a straight. I'm not sure I've ever had a straight on the flop in my short poker life. Anyway, it was a classic hand and I think I'm lucky because he's much younger than me and would have outlasted me eventually. I was close to falling asleep! Props to Pita. There ain't gonna be no rematch!