A quite Vincible Smurf

only 8 players. As John and I had discussed last week, last week I just got no hands at all and it was as un-action oriented as he had seen me. This week what would happen?

Early on, more of the same. Fold, fold, fold. Picked up A.Q. Raised. Couple callers...but I only saw one of them. That would hurt. Flop comes out A/Q/9. I raise. Bill folds. I thought he was the only one in the hand and show mine...so Christine folded. She would have called. Cost myself some chips.

Couple hands later picked up the Rockets. Raised. Couple callers. Flop was ragged, more raising, they all called right down to the river, picked up a nice pot.

Then...nothing. Went cold. Fold, fold, fold.

Blinds are up. Fold, fold, fold.

Picked up A/Q. Raised. 4 callers. Flop was 8/9/8. Checked to me, raised, 3 callers. Checked the turn, heavy betting at the river, I folded on a 9 high board. Sure enough, Todd stayed with K/8....and lost to Chris and her A/8.

Folded for a while. Picked up A/Q in late position. Raised. Three callers. Hit the Queen on a Queen high ragged flop. Raised. Someone came over the top, the other 2 called, I folded. River was a King and someone won with K/8. Again my raise was called...and beat...by a garbage hand.

Fold, fold, fold.

Down to about 1800, blinds up.

Fold, fold, fold.

I did not want to be folding but Todd was raising regularly and I was getting hands I could not call even a bluffers raise with...q/4 (would have tripped the 4s), 6/10 (would have flopped a straight), 3/6 (would have rivered a 6 high straight), K/6 suited, just trash hand after trash hand and after taking those two whuppings when I got in with far and away the best hand but got crushed by trash, I could not play anything except good hands or bad hands with good position...and with the raises and callers, those were not happening.

Finally I went all-in for my last about 12 or 1300 with A/Q. I would not mind a caller. I got 3. And then 2 of them went all in. Christine ended up winning with 2 pair...K/8 were her hole cards.

Three times tonight my A/Q was beaten by K/8. Grr.

The sad thing is...I played really well. I had good reads on people, I played the correct hands, I played them correctly...and it did not matter. Trash hands sometimes win and this was one of those nights. I ended up 5th or 6th, but to be honest, on a night I thought I should have won, does one place that ain't first really matter? I am going to argue no.

Or maybe I am wrong. Maybe I am just a horrible player who deserves to get beat. I don't really believe that...I pretty much have a good idea of the range of hands people are holding, I get away from hands where I am beat, I do the "correct' things to drive out sub-par holdings...but if people stay in with that, though they are mathematically incorrect to do so, they still are going to hit x% of the time...and sometimes those percentages work against me. And, in truth, with 3 and 4 callers, A/Q is an overall underdog even if it was individually a favorite against any calling hand. So the odds were not even in my favor and statistiacally, my A/Q did about right for the night.