Chop, Chop

After one of the most frustrating week's of poker I've had in a long, long time, I managed to turn things around last night in a live 50 + 5 buy-in (that's in Euro) tournament at my local card room.

After showing up a little buzzed at the start of the 9PM event, I managed to limp my way through the first three levels to hit the break with about 20 BB. Not great shape, but not horrible either. I pretty much maintained this level through the next two hours and then, finally, got things going when I cracked Aces after flopping a set of 3s. Sweet.

That double up gave me enough cushion to cruise to the final table where, suddenly, I started getting hit by the deck. Aces, twice (and cracked once). Kings, twice. A-K vs. A-Q, and it holds, etc. By 3AM, we were three handed and I was solidly in second place. We talked about ending the tourney there, but couldn't reach a deal, so we played on until the short stack busted after trying to steal the blinds with Q-6 off-suit.

Once we reached heads-up play, we didn't even bother dealing. We worked a deal and called it a night. All in all, I can't complain. I played tight (for me) and managed to survive through a long stretch of dead cards without losing too many chips. More importantly, I somehow managed to get paid on most of my big hands throughout the night.

I won't say the night redeemed my awful week, but it certainly helped to lessen the pain of all those bad beats I've been taking.