SET OVER SET

I have been on a huge dry spell since my win last week. I'm not getting down on my play, I'm just seeing the expected variance rear its ugly head. I would like to see my streaks run the other way, with final table after final table rather than bubble after bubble.

I joined a $200 event at the last minute yesterday, hoping to earn a WSOP Main Event seat, but I got knocked out relatively early with QQ v KK on a low flop. I headed over to colson10's table to rail him and saw him get eliminated with an ungodly beat. He flopped TT5 holding 55 and slowplayed it until it was apparent somebody else was extremely interested in taking down the pot. At the turn, all the money went in, but the river paired the turn card to counterfeit Carl's full house.

Today, I joined a $50 with only 31 players, paying top five. I gambled a couple of times when I didn't have to, but wanted to amass a fortune in chips if luck had gone my way. One guy kept going all in whenever I raised his big blind. Finally I called with KT, which is a donkey move, I know, but I had him covered twice over and I wanted him to stop doing that, so I deliberately wanted to send him a cease and desist notice. I was hoping my cards were live, but he had AT, which was death to me.

I built my way back up, then with seven players left and me sitting around fourth, I came upon the dreaded set over set scenario. I played 22 to a raise and hit my trips on a K72 flop. He rope-a-doped me the whole way. I figured him for AK, so I was a willing participant. I figured it was gonna take sevens or kings to beat me, and if I can get all my money in, then he can have it if he has me beat. Flopping low trips, it's always in my head that somebody else may have higher trips, but it actually happens rarely enough that if I don't get all my money in, I feel I'm not playing the right brand of poker. In a perfect world, this only happens when my stack is larger, but this time it sent me out at the bubble. It's a good argument against habitually playing low pairs, but this was a four-handed table, so if I flop trips, I'm doubling up or going broke without hesitation.