In the last tourney I shoved with pocket aces on a KQx rainbow board against two opponents. I had raised preflop, so I didn't see them calling with KQ or something like that, so figured my AA was good. I was hoping one of them had AK, but that is unlikely seeing I have two aces. Anyway, I didn't want an AT, AJ, or JT to draw, so I shoved. It really didn't matter how I played
it. All the chips were going in. I get one caller and he turns over KJ (which is a horrific hand to call a preflop raise out of position with). Anyway, the turn is a blank and the river is another K. I am out of the tourney.Before that we are down to 5 players and most of us are under 10 bb's. I am looking for an opportunity to get my money in the middle. I am dealt QQ in the SB. The CO shoves, it is folded around to me, and I make a solid +EV call with my QQ. My opponent turns over AQ (which was also a solid +EV shove), only leaving him 3 outs. The flop misses him, as does the turn. But you can probably guess what came on the river. I'm knocked out. I don't understand why the poker gods have to screw around with things here. Why don't they just let the best hands hold up?
My knock out last night was very unusual (not the knock out, but the tourney itself). Typically at the lower levels I am only one of a couple of +ROI players. But in this one, 7 of the 9 players were +ROI, and most were +10%. I was not surprised to see the fish and the other bad player get knocked out early. It was like a feeding frenzy, each of us trying to consume their chips before they departed. The rest of us survived past the first break, which again is very unusual to get that far at all, let alone with 7 players. At the risk of sounding arrogant, I played a flawless short-stack game. I make 100% of the correct push/fold decisions (according to my post-game review in SNG Wiz). Before I got short stacked I lost a coin-toss situation. I open-pushed from the SB with TT and was called by a player with QJ (yes, my push was +EV and his call was -EV). He caught a Q to beat me. But I had more chips, so was still alive. I fought my way back up to almost 10 bb's. I shove with QQ and some moron calls me with A7. He catches an ace to beat me.
I guess the suck outs are what keeps the fish coming back, and that in turn lines the pockets of the good players with gold. Regardless, four bad beats in my last three tournaments. Zero cashes. Frustrated. On tilt. Quiting for the night.
