Deep In $2500 Limit Event

Were down to the final 13 people heading into day 2 of the $2500 limit holdem event. Average Chips is 44k, I have 30k. Blinds are 1k-2k playing 2-4k.

Midway through the first level, a local highstakes player on my right was trying to get someone to cross book with him. After being turned down by everyone in the room, I offered him a last longer. Feeling this tourney is much smaller than the games he normally plays, plus he was up all night, so hopefully he would just give up if things didnt go his way immediatly. Well my 5k offer was not enough for him, he countered with a 20k last longer. I was pretty sure I could have sold off peices of my action, but the bet would have been big enough to make him play his "A" game (which I didnt want). Midway through level 2 he finally got some cross book action going with someone else and now asked me if I would still make the last longer bet. He now had enough action going where this tourney wasnt a total bore for him. He had me slightly outchipped, but I still felt I was a favorite, and got him to lay me 6k for 5k. We both remained fairly close in chips for the next several levels, one scare for me, but I was able to chip up and avoid elimination....he busted shortly after the table broke....ahh life is good...wish me luck tomorrow.