So Close...

Took 3rd in the Spadeclub $5k weekly. Feels good to win $500, but to know how close I was to my first what I would consider "big" win and come up short... not so much.

I had one big suckout along the way. got in a hand with someone I've played against before, and who I consider one of the worst I've ever played against. I was shortstacked, picked up AJ. the donk raised & I thought it would be a good time for a stop & go. Flop was Qxx, I shoved, she calls & shows AQ. I went runner-runner for the straight and a double up that gave me the stack I needed to get to the final table.

There was one hand that I'm still agonizing about early at the FT. I call shorty all-in w/A3 soooooooted, and 2 others also called preflop. Flop comes 45K. one guy threw out 18k (which was less than half-pot) - I called. turn was a 6. Guy again bets 18k. Here's where I tanked. there were 2 flush draws on the board. I had 130k at this point with blinds at 2000/4000 (I think). To me, I felt villain had a set. there was some discussion earlier at the table about betting into side pots with shorties all-in and this guy was on the side of not doing it. And when he bet so small on the turn, i was really putting him on a set & trying to trap me. I had about 8-1 on the call so odds-wise it should've been a no-brainer, but I really thought I would be just throwing away the chips, so I agonizingly laid it down. River - 7. Of course. shorty had an 8 so I wouldn't have won that pot, but villain had AK, and I'm pretty sure I could've crippled him even with 4 to the straight out there.

Villain in that hand went on to take a big chip lead. That didn't stop me from playing back at him a few times, unfortunately I did it once too often. Once we got down to 3-handed, I was 3rd but not by much. chipleader raised or folded every hand preflop, he never limped once. So I reraised him once with AK and he folded. Reraised all-in w/99 preflop on another hand, he tanked & said he knew he had me beat, but folded, and guessed I had A9. nice.

My proudest moment of the tournament, mainly because it's the type of move I just don't usually have the cojones to make - picked up the powerful 2c6c. with blinds 3k/6k, he raised to 18k, I reraised to 50k & he called. flop came AK4 with 2 spades, he checked, I fired out 75k and he folded. In hindsight, I should've shown him I think. Getting him on tilt probably would've helped.

not long after my friend raised, I reraised w/A9, he put me all-in. At this point I had about 95k in the pot and about 110k behind, and blinds 5k/10k, so I knew I had to call, unfortunately, just hoping to see something like 88. unfortunately it was AQ, and down I went in 3rd.

I think overall I played extremely well. I'm not even too upset about the last hand because although A9 isn't exactly a monster, his raising range was enormous, he had shown a willingness to back down, and I was pretty much committed to calling all-in once it got to that point. My biggest disappointment isn't so much not winning it, it's not getting to heads up, because once it got down to 5 and there were 2 very small stacks, a big leader, then me & one other, my one major goal i had in mind was to get to heads up.

That said, I'll be more than pleased with another 3rd place finish in the 40k this week, as that would mark a $4000 payday! we'll see...