TOURNAMENT TREADMILL

I have been having the worst luck in tournaments lately. PokerRoom has started up a new series of qualifiers for the WSOP. Every morning, beginning this week, I have paid $42 for a Stage 2 qualifier. There were five seats available today. I got some early chips, when they didn't matter much, then the cards dried up for so long, that I became the short stack. I finally had to pick a hand and go all in. I pushed it in with K9c in late position, with one opponent in the pot. The big blind called my raise, giving me the chance to triple up when the K98 flop hit. Unfortunately, the first guy held 88 and it was over for me.

I busted out just in time to enter the double shootout at PokerStars. I paid my $160, and got seated at a table with lots of table talk about the Bellagio and hectic schedules and such. There were at least a few professionals at the table. One of them commented that this was by far the toughest table and the winner of it will stand a good chance of winning the final table. I was looking for a hand that I could set a trap with, to lure in a pro or two. I was getting dealt a pocket pair about every other hand, but none of them hit until a 9A7 flop hit my pocket nines. I made a standard bet, and the pro on the button raised, indicating to me that he had an ace with a shaky kicker. I made the minimum reraise, hoping for at least a call and preferrably an all-in re-reraise. He made the call. The flop was a jack, the second diamond. I bet $600 of my $1000 stack. I could have moved all-in, but I really wanted the call. He thought for awhile and finally came back all-in. I was surprised when he turned over KQd. He was on a flat flush draw against my supposed ace. Needless to say, he hit the five of diamonds on the river and it was over for me. And he's the pro.

Last night, I paid $320 for a shot at Vegas, and I actually played 75 minutes or so, without winning a single pot. PartyPoker starts you out with $1000 rather than $1500, so I decided not to speculate, and come in only with premium hands, so I wouldn't get short-stacked. The premium cards never showed, and I didn't even enter a pot for the first 35 minutes. Then I got into a few hands but missed the flops. Finally, I was desperate, and I went all in with pocket tens and ran up against jacks. C'est la vie.

This moring, while I was waiting for the first tourney to start, I sat at the $10-20 limit table for half an hour and cleared $377, so the day hasn't been a complete wash. I just can't believe how these tournaments are treating me lately. I've played enough of them now, you'd think I'm bound to get some breaks soon.