I've had better days

No joy in the side event yesterday. High quality field and seemed a pretty tough table with just one obvious weak LAG. Card death didn't help either. Best hand I saw the break was Jacks in the SB, a very good American TAG had raised from late position, I flatcalled and check raised him on a Queen high flop only to have him move all in, so down from 7K to 5.6K almost straight away. Got back to 6.5K at the first break thanks to two medium-sized pots, one a legitimate AQ on a Q high flop, the other a very illegitimate Q5s where I came over the top of the weak LAG's call (he was raising total shit like K5 and 106s so I figured his calls were even weaker) but then got scared when a very good French TAG in the blind flat called. Flop came AJx, checked to me, and a half pot continuation bet thankfully took it down. Second session, card death continued and again I only got back in it thanks to a frankly bizarre situation whereby a short stack was all in with 87s against KJ, flop came AQ2 with two of his suit, turn was a 2, and river a Q. Dealer awarded the pot to KJ, the 87 accepted he'd lost and walked off. The dealer went to muck the cards as I stared at the board and asked "Wasn't that a split?" Some other players mumbled about not being sure before one of them decided to back me and we convinced the dealer a mistake had been made. The pot was divvied up and the guy's stack restored, and I went to look for the guy but he'd already left. So now we had effectively a sitout. First time the sitout stack is in the big blind I comment to the guy on my left "There could be carnage here" anticipating everyone looking to make a move on the guy's BB, and nobody thinking anyone else has a hand. In fact, the whole table limps. I'm down to 5K on the button with 86o but I figure it's worth taking a punt for just 200 in position. Flop comes J86, two diamonds. Checked round to guy just before cutoff who bets 1100, or almost pot. Guy in cutoff has a long dwell and smooth calls. There's now 3600 in the pot and I figure my bottom two pair should be good right now but with so many draws out there might not be for long so I push all in. Two long dwells, two folds, and I almost double up. I win the next three pots and with over 10K I', thinking I'm in good shape. Pride goes before a fall and a few pots later, last one before dinner break, I'm in the BB with Q2o, SB completes and I'm happy to check. Flop comes AdQs10s, opponent bets 400 (half pot), I don't think he has an ace or a queen, and decide to just call and let him bluff at it again if he wants. I figure he might also be on a flush draw so I think by just calling I can keep the pot small and minimise my losses if a spade comes on the turn, and alternatively push him off the draw if it doesn't. Turn is Qd so now I've trips. He checks, I bet 800, he raises 2.5K. Suddenly I think he might be playing a disguised ace so I call. Rivers the 9d and he goes into a long speech play asking me if I hit my flush that suddenly gives me the sick feeling that he just hit his flush. It's hard to put him on two diamonds that would justify his bets so far so when he bets 3K, I make a crying call for just under half my stack and get shown the nut flush, Kd4d. Still not sure what his check raise on the turn was all about, I guess I could have gone with my gut and pushed allin then but he'd probably have called as he had only 4K behind. There's no doubt I played the hand badly though: a raise on the flop would surely have sent him away, and the call on the river was retarded given that he'd more or less announced through his speech play that he had the flush. So the story of this weekend has been that sometimes sets are no good. That left me short after the break and I waited as long as I could before pushing with KQs from the CO and getting called by Bob Battersby on the button with AQ. He hit an ace on the flop and another on the turn to totally kill me. Other than that, had a nice day out at CityWest watching the progress of the other boardsies. Seemed like Day 1b was a good one for them but day 2 was a bit of a mare with just Dom and Willie Yuletired making the money. Especially gutted for Smurph who went deep and played some great ninja poker on the TV table, Nicky Power who just didn't get the luck, and Lloyd who played great poker on Day 1b and was unlucky to get his shove called light by Julian Thew. Had no real reason to go out to City West today (my PLO skills not being advanced enough yet to make me anything other than the value) so decided to stay at home and play online, a few $20 SNGs, a satellite to the Monte Carlo EPT Super sat. Came through the sat but never really got going in the super sat and hovered around my starting stack until the blinds got too high and I had to push with AQ UTG and got called by 1010 and QQ. I'll be out there tomorrow though for the DC scalps game. On the running front, I did my last track session yesterday, or tried to. I was supposed to do 8 800s, but after I'd done 6 we were basically ordered off the track by an ALSAA security guy who said we had no right to be there as non-members. Mireille's protestations that I had permission from the athletics club there to use the track and was an international athlete preparing for an important race next weekend fell on deaf or rather stubborn ears, insisting that nobody was booked to be on the track so nobody should be there. Great Irish logic there: the track's supposed to be empty so you can't use it. A very annoying ending to the session as 5 more minutes and I'd have been done. As we were driving home disconsolately, we heard my radio interview being broadcast on RTE's Saturday Sport. Very surreal to hear my own voice like that, something I always hate the sound of. Today I did my last tempo run, 70 minutes at race pace, and it felt like an easy cruise so that's a good sign.

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