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Well, it couldn't last forever, could it? Last Friday, I played the $40 tournament at the Cable Bridge. I started out quite well, improving my starting stack of 3000 chips to well over 7000 chips in the first two rounds. Then I got stupid. I began the evening with very good cards and very good flops, not to mention a few good calls, but then my cards started getting ugly and I pushed too hard with very marginal hands. I knew it while I was doing it, which makes it doubly bad.

During the third round, I pushed too hard in early position with a weak ace (A8 off) and a lady went all-in with AQ, so I got beat on that one. The only thing in my defense was that she barely had any chips left, so it wasn't entirely terrible of me to call, but I also could have easily gotten away from it and didn't. Shortly thereafter, I made a bad call that must have been really bad because I've completely forgotten what it was. Trauma!! Anyway, pretty soon, I was down to my last 2000 chips and went all in with QJ suited. I flopped a straight and got healthy again and got stupid again on the very next hand.

I was in the small blind with Q6 off and five people in the pot. It was only 200 for me to call to win 2000, so I guess it wasn't a totally terrible call, but then I flopped the top pair (6) with Q kicker and that was the end of me. I went all-in and got called in two spots. One guy had A6, so my kicker killed me. The other lady, who was brand new to tournaments and had no clue what she was doing, simply called with an ace (A7) and hit her 7 on the river, which irritated A6 to no end. Anyway, that was the end of my Friday.

Saturday, I played the $40 tournament at the Crazy Moose. Very shortly into the tournament, I called a raise with pocket tens. The flop was Q-8-3 rainbow. Unless the original raiser specifically had AQ, QQ, 88 or 33, I didn't think I was in bad shape. He bet about one-half the pot and I called. The turn brought another queen. This is where I completely screwed up. I thought he couldn't possibly have a queen when there were two of them on the board. Wrong. He bet 700 and I called. The river was a blank. He bet 700 again. Again I called. At least I didn't do something really stupid. He had quad queens!! Good grief. I still had about half my chips, so it could have been much worse.

I soon won a small pot with A-10 and felt better. About three hands later, I raised in early position with AQ off. I got SIX callers. No one EVER believes me when I raise in early position. The flop was 9-10-J rainbow, so I flopped an open-ended straight draw and also thought I might be able to win with a queen or an ace. I decided to go for broke and went all-in. This play only got rid of three of my original callers, however and I never did hit anything. Phooey. An A-J beat me and I was gone.

Oh, well. Back to the drawing board.