The Gods Must be Angry

I played in the uber-crapshoot yesterday, the 10k FPP turbo tourney on PokerStars. 9600 ppl registered, although there was room enough for 12k. The top 4,000 people cashed, so it was a juicy tourney to play, even if it was a turbo. I managed to qualify for it in a 2k FPP 6-man qualifier, and joined the Wolf and Bag for what I predicted to be a wild, but fun ride.

It started off so well. I doubled up early and kept building my stack the way my bludgeoning style does so well. I was especially proud of the hands I didn't get involved in. Sometimes I get so excited about playing that I'll jump into pots I shouldn't... but not this time. I was up to 24k when the average stack was about 8k, and then made what I hoped would be the play of the tourney. Two players ahead of me with average stacks both went all in, and I called on the button with 99. I was wavering on the decision of whether or not to do it, but then Wolf said, "folding here is a fine play, but if you're playing for the final table, picking this pot up would be huge." And I always play for the final table. I called and the others showed A9 and KQ. I somehow managed to dodge all the high cards, and BLAMO! I'm at 42k.

This is when the poker gods got angry.

Apparently that was too much success, because I don't think I won a pot after that. And I was playing good hands. I lost 99 to KQ, KK to JT, AK to QJ, AK to J5, AK to AA, JJ to A4, and I'm sure plenty more that I've stricken from my memory. These were all in pre-flop. The only hand I didn't lose was when I got AK in against AK, and even then I was seriously worried, until the flop came rainbow for the split.

I managed to finish in the 750s for a pretty decent score considering that I put zero dollars into the tourney, but I found no joy in it. I was playing a great game, had a great stack size, and lost it all to an insanely bad run of luck. Even when I was crippled, with a measly 1200 stack when the ANTES were 400 each I got it in with Tc2c against KT. I thought that there'd be a little mercy at the end when the flop came 3 K x with 2 clubs. The turn was 3c and I had a flush to bring me back to 6k (certainly no reason to hope for a comeback, but it would've been a moral victory) but then the river brought the dreaded third tre and I was gonzo.

What's the lesson of this story? I have no idea. If you can find one, you let me know. The best I could come up with was that maybe I'm not meant to have a huge poker score, maybe the gods want me to be a small fish in a big pond. But I'll be damned if I stop trying.