variation is still a bitch

Played in three tournaments this evening. The "Ace of Aces" tournament on Poker Room, a 36/3 satellite to the 500k tomorrow on stars, and the now customary 45k on stars.

Let's begin with the satellite. No hands, pushed with AK behind a raise, a guy cold called with 66. A on flop, 6 on turn.

The 45k was sick as hell, as is becoming customary. When AA lost to AJ on hand 3, I knew it was going to be fun. To the same player I lost with the A high flush to his straight flush, the 2nd nut flush to the nut flush. I managed to get a reasonable stack by the end of the rebuy period when I stopped getting the 2nd nuts. I then blew through it all in hour two. A lot of it went away with AT on an AAK flop when J2 made a flush. Most of the rest went when trying to get a guy off a hand that he telegraphed as being mediocre. It was. He didn't fold it. The rest of it went when I semibluffed right into a set. Surprisingly, I didn't hit. Shocking, I know.

The Ace of Aces was a fun tournament. It had a nice strucutre, not as slow as the Stars deep stacks, but still quite enjoyable. I got a very nice stack through aggressive play. I was picking up a number of hands, but struggled to get action on them. I made a couple nice calls when I reasoned through things properly. In short, I was playing very well. I was at 13k and in the bubble spot (15 paid, I was somewhere around 15th - 18th with 23 left) with a massive stack on my left. He'd overraised when I'd completed FTA several times before. I did so again with A8, and he bet me in. I thought it through, and decided that it was likely my hand was best. It wasn't, he had 55, but I was in a race. Surprisingly, I lost that one too. I would have been in the top 5. Maybe it was a bad call, but in the long run, it's +EV, I think.

Oh well. I think I played quite well this evening, it just didn't work out.

I'm playing quite well, at least. I'm not getting lucky in key spots, which is something you need in order to win these things. I've got confidence that it will turn for me, that for a while I will run good and get lucky. I'm just hoping it's soon.