broken record

First hand of the night, got a cheap play vs. 2 limpers in the small blind with JT, and flopped a J! Wait, cards can come on the flop that match the ones in your hand!!?!? Shocking. I bet the flop and turn and took the pot down. Nice to be above 1500 for a change.

Sadly, this early win did me no good. Once again I finished on the bubble. Once again I was praying for a good hand, got QQ in the big blind, and saw everyone fold to me. Once again I shoved K8 and had someone behind me with AQ. Once again nothing came on the flop to bail me out.

sigh.

Then, redemption - Sharkscope told me that a $30 6-man tourney was rated 3 fishies (don't think I've ever seen 3 before), with only 3 people so far in the game! I hopped on. ROIs at the table looked like this: -30, -12, -17, -23, 8, and me. Even better, the 8 got knocked out early with QQ vs. AQ when an A came on the turn, so I was swimming with the red fishies the rest of the way.

Made a nice jump with an AA that held up. Standard raise - guy calls - flop is K high, absolutely no draws - I bet he calls. Ok, he's got a K. I bet more than half his stack on the turn, he shoves, I call, he's got K8s. King-Eight he called a raise with! Alrighty-then.

3 handed was tough - finally, the other two guys both hit top pair - AT vs. 9T. The 9T was in big trouble until, saved! a 9 on the turn. But then, damn! an Ace on the river. The old rollercoaster, and I was heads up vs. Mr. -30.

Two hands turned the tide. In the first, I had JJ in the small blind. I thought about slowplaying, but this guy was calling raises with Q8 and K3 - plus, I had raised the last 2 hands, so I figured he would figure me for a steal. I was right - he shoved. I prayed he didn't have AK/AQ or a higher pair (just my luck lately), but he flipped over 22. He shoved with 22! Nice. I avoided the death blow bad beat and took the lead.

This hand must have tilted him - he shoved the next two hands. I dutifully folded T7o and QTo (briefly considered calling that one), but then hit AKo and made my standard raise. He shoved, I called, and I was way ahead as he flipped over A2. Nice. Once again I avoid the 3 outer and he's down to 300 or so chips. 2 auto-all-ins later and he's done.