PAINFUL CHOP OF THE DAY

I finished on the bubble (the friggin' bubble) in a $163 event yesterday. There was some joker to my left who calls himself TheBrain and he was riding a sine wave the entire tourney, going way up in chips, then duffing them off on a loose call. I was coasting along, slowly upgrading my chip stack, but hadn't had that one big pot yet to get me in good shape.

It folded to my sb and I completed with KQ. I like the hand, but I don't like to raise into a bigger stack and risk getting reraised. I would rather take a flop with any hand that may dominate the bb's hand. So the flop comes king-high with two diamonds - my queen is a diamond. I bet out and he calls. The turn is another diamond. I bet out the same 2/3 size and he flat calls again. The river is a fourth diamond. I didn't figure him for a diamond because I've been watching him gamble time and again, and I think he would have made a move if he had a high diamond. Besides, if he had an ace, he likely would have repopped me preflop. So, now that the pot was relatively large, I lead out with a small defensive bet. I figured I would get called with any diamond regardless of bet size but the blocking bet might induce a big bluff. As if on command, he instantly went all in. An instant later, I called and he showed K4 with no diamond. I was happy with my play there. In theory, I can't call an all-in for my tourney life without the ace of diamonds. I know he knows I know he knows that and it paid off big for me.

So, a few orbits go by and we are now basically even in chips and again it folds to my sb. I have A9 and make a standard 3x raise. He instantly goes all-in. I've got no respect for the guy and my gut tells me that my hand is good so I make the call. I've got him covered by a little bit, so I'm looking to acquire the balance of his stack and march on. He shows 64d. The flop comes (As Qs Tc) and he is all but drawing dead. At this point I am 97% to win the hand, but whatever god he prays to was in the deck and he drew out perfect/perfect JK for the chop.

That was the most painful hand of the tournament for me because I missed out on $13k chips that he was giving away. Ten minutes later, somebody else got those chips and I could only make it to just outside the pay structure.