does the satisfaction ever overtake the irritation?

Had an irritating opponent to my right tonight - raised my blind 2x every time. EVERY TIME. If I called, she bet the flop every time.

For awhile my chips were low and my cards sucked and I couldn't do much about it.

I almost didn't get to tangle with her. I raised AQ from under the gun and a blind called. The board came 9TQ and I bet my top pair. I got minraised. KJ was certainly a possibility, or a set, and I should have went away, but it was one of those deals where my mouse clicked before I was done looking at all the possibilities. I called and my opponent turned over two kings. Whhoooooops.

A river Ace saved my ass, though, leaving the villain to go kill a penguin rather than me.

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I got to take a stand against the minraiser with AQ. She raised me 2x for the 50th time and I shoved with 9 BB. She called with AT and I doubled up. It felt verrrry good.

She folded her next few times around but then started her raising ways again. I broke the 4th place player and the bubble broke - I was content to fold for awhile and hope 2 and 3 got into a hand, but they didn't.

She kept raising. I shoved with A6 - she folded. I called and donked into her - she folded. I called with A7, then checkraised her all in on an A33 flop. She thought a long time and then folded (pocket pair, I assume). I was chipping, chipping away, but couldn't knock her out. She kept raising my blind, over and over.

The blinds got to 250-500, with 3 of us still in. Nobody had over 10 BB. I shoved KQo into the middle.

She wrote "rock n roll?", asking if I wanted a call.
I replied "up to you".
She called with deuces in her pocket, and edged over the finish line before me. Out in 3rd.

Lots of luck, work and good play to lead up to that moment, but a completely unsatisfying ending.

ICM tells me that my shove is a positive move, even unexplotable vs. an average call range. Not sure if her call with 22 was good, my guess is NO, which of course won't make me feel any better.

Update: her call with 22 was terrible, according to SNGWiz (this morning, I learned how to turn a hand around to analyze the play of another play). While my push/fold decision was .3% (that's 3 tenths of a percent) in one direction or the other (depending on villains' calling ranges), her call with 22 was between negative 2 and 3 percent.

Blah.