One of those nights

That never really gets going, in the Fitz EOM tonight.

Got almost no cards, which when you're as much of an unimaginative rock as I am is usually fatal. And the few cards I got connected with no flops.

One Ace King, which did at least double me up to past my starting stack (7500) to 9000 just before the break when an Ace duly arrived on the turn and Jim refused to believe I had it.

No Ace queen or ace jack, one king queen (which won a small pot, the only other one I won before the break). Highest pair - jacks, which won 3 big blinds without a flop. Only one other pair of note - tens, which did all the damage.

Shortly after the break, I'm up to about 10K, when I get the 10s UTG. Raise 5 big blinds to 1000, one caller in late position, a guy I had pegged as a good tight solid player, so I figure he's probably got a decent pocket pair, or maybe AK or AQ.

Flop came 532, and I led out for 1200. He seems in two minds and then he goes all in for about 5K. Since I have him pegged as a solid player, I'm mainly wondering how high his pocket pair is, fearing jacks mainly. I consider folding, but I'm getting odds of 5 to 2ish, and he really really doesn't look comfortable at all the more I look at him. So much so I start to consider the possibility that this is a move with AQ or AK, and with that in mind, I decide it's a fairly routine call.

I flip over my 10s, he turns over a jack and my heart sinks thinking I was right first time, pocket jacks. But no, the other card is an ace. Not a hand I was expecting at all, though as it turns out I'd have been better off against AK or AQ, because a jack duly arrived on the river.

In fairness to my opponent, he was drifting towards shortstacksville so it was a reasonable move, and he said he put me on Ace king (though that makes me wonder about the call preflop). At least he's a nice guy (I played with him for a while in Drogheda) so for once I didn't begrudge him his fortune because, hey, that's poker, and I'm a great believer in the law of averages. Unfortunately my chips didn't do him any long term good because shortly afterwards he was all in on a flush draw that didn't arrive.

If I'd won that pot, I'd have been up to about 17K and in a great position to have a run at the tournament, but instead I was headed towards shortstackville myself and never really recovered. I had to get more active, and did, and yoyoed up and down between 2k and 4K. Got nothing remotely pushable and anyway people were pushing ahead of me. Eventually I've passed though shortstackville to totaldesperationburg when I pick up K10 UTG with just over 5 big blinds left, so in they go. Folded around to big blind who takes a really really long dwell, so long I'm actually rooting for the call because I figure I must be ahead if he's taking this long since with pot odds of almost 2 to 1 it seems like an automatic call for anything half decent. But no, he eventually calls with great apparent reluctance and turns over one of the hands I really don't want or expect to see: KQ. Domination city. I fail to get lucky and that's that.

I wasn't really too downhearted though: you just get nights like that in poker, and you have to accept them. I'm much happier going out of a tournament in circumstances like that than where I've made a clear mistake, or missed opportunities. I think I played more or less perfectly tonight, I believe I got all the judgement calls right, I was picking up tells and table dynamic and betting patterns again better than I have been since Drogheda, and I really don't think there was anything else I could have done.

Three of the final tableists from Drogheda were there, and it was nice to see them again. Fran was at my table for a while (got very unlucky when he made a great allin call with QJ on a QJ10 board: the other guy had aces but the board paired), and was talking to Lloyd at the break. He was telling me he quit the hated day job and he's taking off around the world. Good for him.

CHL's tomorrow, and hopefully the cards will be a bit better and the flops will be connected with.

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