thisclose to the final table!

Oy. How can winning $150 feel so crappy? When you're the "final table bubble" that's how!

The tourney on Saturday featured my best performance to date, but I left feeling frustrated and mad at myself.

The game started late due to some technical difficulties, and we ended up having to grab random seats. Yikes. I end up in the 2s at a table where I know one of the players (a very methodical mathmatical player aka MMP) but the rest were unknowns. I win the first two pots of the game and build up a nice little stack when I river a straight and go all-in (I don't get called, but my opponenent bet quite a bit before folding to me).

There were a few memorable hands - mostly played against MMP. Twice he raised me, and twice I went all-in against him. Both times he put be on Kings, and he was wrong both times. My hands weren't nearly that strong, but I knew I could get him off his hands, and I was successful both times. That felt amazing.

Then, I'm not even sure what happened, but I ended up down quite a bit. In retrospect, I don't remember losing any large pots, but I guess a bunch of little pots along the way add up.

My table breaks, and I get moved to a table with KS - one of the other few women at the tourney, who I've played with briefly before. She has a great reputation (which is well deserved from my observations), and she has a MONSTER stack. Somewhere around 100,000....compared to my measly 12,000. But then, for some reason, chips start coming my way. I go all-in with top pair shitty kicker only to be called by someone who THOUGHT the Jack on the board was a King to go with his KQ. Holy hell, that was sweet.

Then I get involved in a hand with KS. She bluff-raises me on the turn and I smooth call, then go all-in on the river. I knew I had the best hand, and she gave me A LOT of chips. I thought for sure she would call the river (which would have been fine for me), but I read her wrong. She told me later she was on a OESD & flush draw. I put her on trip 8s. So although I was very happy to win the pot, I'm not happy that I got the wrong read.

I made it to the dinner break (24 players left...top 11 pay), and after the dinner break KS busts out, leaving me as the only woman left. And then I RULE my table. The fold to every bet or raise I make. It's like a dream.

Then it's 2 tables. The money bubble bursts. Yippie! My best finish so far! Then another player goes out, and we're down to 10. Final table is 9. And I get moved.

Bah!

My new table starts to bully me (one player in particular) and I fold repeatedly. Then I limp in with 56s (miskate #1), get raised 3xBB and then IDIOTICALLY go all-in, get called quickly by AQo, and his hand holds up, so I go out and miss the final table.

I wish I knew exactly what prompted me to go all-in. Part of it was, I think, that I was sick of getting pushed around. The bully had a huge chip-stack and used it against me. I was right to take a stand, but probably should have done it with a stronger hand. I was so bummed because I had PLENTY of chips. I could have posted & folded and made it to the final table without difficulty.

I feel frsutrated just thinking about it.

But my lesson was learned. I can still take a stand against a bully - I just have to pick my moments with a little more clarity.

My time will come. But aparantly, it will not come on APLady or Titan. I dumped $200 into APLady on Sunday morning and promptly lost is playing 3 tournies and way above my banroll. Cripes. Then I tried to sign up with Titan, only to be given the crazy runaround with my deposits, and am now down about $15. Ugh. Titan's Customer Service is terrible, and I can't seem to win a pot. I'm considering cashing out entirely and giving online a REAL break....not just 2 weeks.

We shall see if Titan ever responds to my email.