Sometimes You're Just Not Meant to Win.

That's not to say you won't cash, but you're not going to win.

I entered a 45-person SnG. While I waited for it to start I "sat" down at a .50/1.00 limit and proceeded to win my buy-in to the SnG, plus the money I lost earlier. YEAH! Free SnG.

So it starts, and I wait, and I wait, and I wait. I'm not playing supertight, but I'm not going broke with top pair either. Most of the time I'm below average in chips. At around 3 tables, I being to accumulate decent chips. I make the final table with about average (top 6 pay). I make the money and sometime after # 6 busts out, I'm chip leader. To a point where I have almost 30k, and 2nd has about 17k, and the last three have between 5k-7k. I lose some chips, but not too many. Still have a healthy lead.

I'm dealt AKs in UTG. I make a raise of about 3.5x the BB. Folds around to the BB. My raise is for nearly all his chips so he pretty much has to push. It's nothing to me. I call. He shows a beautiful AQ. I'm doin' the Cabbage Patch at my desk. Oh wait... I need to see a flop. How bad can it be.

Q-x-Q. Ouch. Ok, I have about 19K in chips. I'm still good.

Next hand, I have ATs in the big blind. There's two limpers, including the small blind (AQ guy). I push to take the pot. One folds, but SB calls, he's all in again. I have him beat (but not too bad this time) as he flips over KQ. Of course he rivers a K. I'm suddenly in a 3 way race for last. I feel a little tilt coming on but manage to shake it off and play smart. I still have enough chips to make people fold (my stack is about 1/3 of the chip leader). I steal some blinds with K3s and the like. I actually get up to 2nd place. In the end, I get crippled (by the same guy who sucked out on me twice), but I forgot the hand. I'm left with barely any chips left. Wasn't even enough for the BB (which I was). They both call and check it down. I'm outta there, but I finished in third and had a decent payday (about 7x the buy-in).

It feels good to play good poker... especially after donking off so much on Sunday morning.