93.23% NOT GOOD ENOUGH

I have not turned a profit in August. I have been making the money plenty but no significant cashes as of yet has me a few thousand dollars poorer on the month. Some of the buy-ins were hopeless attempts at chasing a payday while a house full of hungry kids annoyed me from behind. I'm usually good for about an hour then I become too distracted to play well and I come unhinged. Yesterday, I found myself alone in the middle of the day with my kids on a playdate. I fired up the $50 One-Rebuy One Add-on at Stars and went to work.

I got a slew of big hands during the rebuy period and worked my way into the top ten. I even made one big laydown on the hand after I pulled in $750 in dead money by making a squeeze play with AQ from the small blind. On the next hand I got dealt pocket kings on the button. There was a raise and three callers and I put in a big raise just like the previous hand, looking for someone to get out of line. The only caller was the initial raiser. Since he only called with three players left to act, I put the chances of him having aces at a tick over nil. I figured him for AK or QQ. The flop came 8QA and I knew I was dead. He checked to me and I didn't even bother with a continuation bet. The pot was already big and betting out half of it was just going to further dent my stack so I just gave up the ghost. He bet out $1k on the turn and I instafolded. It's always painful to release a big pair before showdown but I couldn't imagine him betting there with JJ or lower and even though I had him crushed preflop, I was happy that both the AQ came just so there would be no doubt in my mind that he connected as there would have been if only one or the other had come.

I still had over $7k in front of me and I added another $2k with the add-on. On the first hand of the second hour, I called a raise from BeLOWaBOVe from the button holding KJs. I've watched this guy play in the past including an event he won just a few nights ago. He is mondo aggressive and once he gets a stack, he uses it to blow the weak-willed off their hand with big raises. I knew if I connected in any way that I would be playing for all my chips if necessary. The flop came ten-high with two spades and I was ready to go for it. He made the continuation bet and I put in enough of a raise to make it appear as if I wanted to avoid a turn. He studied and finally called. The turn was a king, pairing me up. He checked and I put in a scared looking bet of less than half the pot. He studied awhile and, figuring the king was a scare card, came back with a 3x raise. That's what I was looking for. I went all in and he folded to preserve the $3k he had left. This hand put me up past $21k and in the lead.

Soon after, I got QQ in the small blind. There was a raise UTG and I merely called so I could either win a monster or keep the pot small in case I get unlucky which is often the case after building a huge stack. The flop came 6QK with two spades and I saw the making of a monster. There's a real good chance he has either AA or AK and in either case, we may get all the money in right here. I bet out a little more than 3/4 the size of the pot. As desired, he came back raising. I shoved and he called with AsKc. This was a HUGE pot. I was already chip leader with $21k and here was a $15k pot I had a 93% chance of winning. The turn paired the six, filling me up but giving my opponent a 4.5% chance of catching a king on the river for the scoop, which of course he did. I was out a few minutes later when I lost a race for all my chips. BeLOWaBOVe of course went on to finish fourth.