Three, Two, .... Eighteen.

Well, that didn't go as planned. It seemed to be destined by fate, or some other form of cosmic destiny, but.... Oh, I forgot to mention, last night was the third annual World Series of Hold'em at Jake's Diner.

In last year's tournament, I finished in second place, and the year before that, I was wamboolzed by a 12-year old and finished third. It only seemed fitting with the pattern of third, second, then... first, right?

Of course that's a common misconception that many poker players have. No matter how the cards are coming to you, or how you are playing, there is a level of luck involved, and if you don't get luckl in addition to playing good, forget about it.

Last night reminded me more of my first year playing in Jake's World Series. I had only qualified the night before and I hardly knew any of the players, nor them knowing me. Sometimes that can work to your advantage, and other times it doesn't. They have no idea of what you style of play is, of course you don't know theirs either. Last night I was seated at a table where I knew two of the players rather well, and the other three were women I had not played against before.

None of them were overly aggressive, but no matter what bet I made, I was usually called and usually by very strong hands, or weak ones. It worked in their favor, because I found my chip stacks leaking for most of the first thirty minutes. As the blinds rose, I was able to pick up a few small pots here and there, but nothing huge.

I did knock off the first player at our table, but not too long after that I made an aggressive move and lost a sizeable amount of chips. It was one of those moments that you want to slap yourself for not paying attention to the other players possible hand. Yep, I was only looking at my pair of kings and ignored the possible flush. Ooops.

With the blinds getting up there I saw my future looked rather gloomy. I was hoping for any high card to push all-in with, and all I got was starting hands like 10-2, 7-2, 3-9... garbage. Finally I was forced all-in with the big blind. I had K-5, which wasn't too bad. The flop came 3-K-5. I saw a glimmer of hope, but a few of the other players raised it up, which can signal doom when you have to wait it out. Nothing great came on the turn and river, of course when I had to turn over my two-pair, I exclaimed "HA!!!!...aw crap" and saw Sue sitting across from me with three of a kind. BUSTED.

Lyle's recap showed he had similar visions of the final table. He was very close and had a healthy chip stack, however he got burned by an aggressive raise with a strong hand, that was called and beat him. If he would have won the hand, he would have eliminated Bob (last year's champion), but instead, Bob returned to the final table for his third consecutive year, thus taking away my overall top finishing positions.

The players who I viewed as the strongest at the final table didn't have very good luck and went out at 6th (Bob), 4th (Dave) and 3rd (Frank). Franks over aggressive play seemed to be an ideal candidate to dominate the final table, but he was called on almost every move and busted out after a few back and fourths, proving that you still need luck. The eventual winner Zin played a very cautious game towards the end, making the finale a bit lackluster.

Of course, being on the outside is always more lackluster than being on the inside. I'm not sure which expression is more overused at this point, "Just one time" or "there's always next year". I guess I still have the right to use both.

Lyle said:
Dick and Loretta Kryzanek said: