Was playing in the weekly Monday morning tournament at Artichoke Joe’s. It’s a limit tournament, with the typical 15-minute rounds and non-deep stacks intended to get the tournament over in about 2 1/2 hours, starting with 5 tables of 11. Got short stacked early, came back, got down to the final 2 tables (top 9 paid, usually a chop at that point), then down to two tables of shorthanded play. And pretty much everyone’s short stacked; blinds are at T$!000 and T$2000 with limits of T$2000 and T$4000. I just raised and took the blinds the previous hand to get my stack to T$7300, about 3rd at my table.
UTG player, young, seen him play aggressive before often, earbuds in, raises. I’m next, find Kc-Jd. I figure raiser could have a wide range of hands, as he is a “big” stack (no more than T$10,000 or so though), trying to pick up blinds against folks who are trying to survive to the final table.I decide I like my hand, and I might even be either a favorite or just a small dog, and with the blinds as potentially dead money, I make it 3 bets, fully expecting to get in all in. I am not disappointed, and I ind I’m in a race; he has pockets 10s.
Flop is about the best I could hope for–or so I thought: J-6d-5d. Flop top pair and get the flush draw to boot.
But what the poker gods giveth, the poker gods taketh away. You can probably guess what happens next (else why would I be writing this?).
The turn is a 10, giving him a set. Ouch!
The river doesn’t help and I’m out in 12th place, just out of the money yet again. I’m disappointed in missing the money, but I’m not unhappy with my decision. And that will have to be my consolation.