Took 3rd in the first WPBT event of the year. Lost to eventual winner rspr41 when I flopped the nut flush draw, hit a pair on the turn, but couldn’t beat the king he flopped.

Of course, I had no business getting that deep. I was next-to-last in chips when I went on a tear after the first break and even had the lead for a smidge. I can’t recall all the big hands, but I remember the biggest–with a good sized stack at the final table, I went all-in with KK after a raise and re-raise ahead of me. Smokkee called…and of course he had aces. And he had me covered. Seventh place loomed like a big looming thing, when a king spiked on the flop. “Shades of Farha” I wrote, recalling the hand Sammy won against Barry Greenstein on High Stakes Poker. Sick hand.

When it got to three-handed I went card-dead. I mean, the deck was dipped in liquid nitrogen. Our inhospitable chip leader beat our brains in and GCox refused to go belly up. I tread water but I couldn’t get that one big hand. Until the final one. I had lots of outs, but this time I didn’t get lucky. Sure got lucky along the way.

This after I played a satellite this afternoon and donk-a-donked my way out in about 17 seconds. That memory will keep me humble when I see my name on the WPBT Leaderboard.

I really need to start playing more tournaments. Not that tonight’s finish has me thinking about hitting the tournament trail, but I do have fun with them. Of course, most opponents aren’t as erudite and witty as tonight’s group.

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