8th in the FT 200k

Very frustrating 8th place.

Remember earlier this week when I wondered if it was possible to finish 6th of 177 and get very unlucky? It wasn't that bad, but I never once came from behind in this tournament to win.

I got a number of decent hands here, which is cool since I was card dead all weekend up to this point. I had a number of big favorites hold to be chipleader with 40 left - AK v. AQ and QQ v A9. But after that I neither could get lucky nor could avoid the bad luck.

I was bullying my table well, slowly building my stack, when with 11 left and 3rd in chips (two monsters on the other table though) I put a player in from the SB with QTs. He called all in (loose call, but I'd been using the all in as a weapon) with KJs. I flopped the queen, he rivered the king. The final table appeared, I was 4th of 9, with 2 monsters, 1 that was just shy of that (the KJ guy), 4 of us in about the same area and two with about 5 big blinds. One of the shorties was on my left, and he is a notoriously tight player - I put him in when folded to me on the SB with K5, he called all in with KQ and flopped trips. I had a flush draw on the river, but couldn't spike it.

I picked up a steal in there, then on my BB the new shortie (8 left) moved in for about half my stack. I called with A9, he had 87s. The flop was 765, and I couldn't hit an ace or the straight. Back on that guy's BB after I folded garbage with raises in front, I moved in with Q7s. He thought for a while and called half his stack with K5o. I flopped the 7 and dodged the king.

Next hand with 10BB I had QQ and moved in again. I was hoping there would be people that wouldn't understand the difference in the situations, and call with weak hands like middle pairs and weak aces. Tighty on my left called all in with AK, the flop was KJT. The turn was a T, but I couldn't spike an ace or queen. Left with 1.5BB, I put it in the next hand with A4, but couldn't beat A6 or 77 and I was eliminated in 8th.

I'm pleased with the payday ($5k), as it sure beats going 0 for the weekend, but this is incredibly frustrating. I harken back to early December when I kept getting close but couldn't quite finish the deal. If I could have just gotten lucky in one of those spots (dodging the river K in the QT v. KJ hand, for instance) or won a flip (QQ v. AK) I'd certainly have finished at least 5th which would have been good for personal record payday.

This is the sort of tournament where I don't know if it ever gets to the point where I'm pleased with the result. I think it'll just be forever frustrating, because of how close I came on a few occasions to that monster $50k payday.