Glub Glub Glub...

Drowning in the river. What else is new? The 9-person tournament for Vegas started off nicely for me. I was involved in two early pots and took them both, so I went from the T2500 to about T3500 pretty early. Then I get KK just behind the button. EP raises to 500, he gets one caller, and I just call as well. I figure EP must have an A, so I don't want to be risking too much if one happens to flop.

Flop comes KQT. Lovely. Caller bets out 500, I raise to 1000. EP folds, caller re-raises all-in for another 500. I take a second look at the flop, thinking AJ would be a killer, but I have to call. He shows J9o. WTF? Board doesn't pair and I'm back down to T2000.

I did my best to keep out of the way as two others bust out. Then I get KJ of spades and call an EP raise. AQ spades and a 4 on the flop. I have a Royal Flush draw... I have yet to ever see a Royal, and here I am practically holding one! The other two in the pot had Q4 and A4 - they were betting out strong so it cost me dearly to chase the Ts, or any Ten or any Spade. Nothing. The River brought a Q to fill out Q4.

Short stacked now at about T500. Push twice with nice hands, AKs and 77, but no action. Get 66 in the BB and there's an EP raise that puts me all-in. He has A4s, and catches the A on the River.

Could I have done anything different? Could I really have played any better? I think the only mistake I made was paying too much on that straight/flush/Royal draw. Should I have been more aggressive pre-flop on that hand? Hindsight is 20/20 and I probably couldn't have pushed the other two off the pot at any time; and I'm glad I didn't go all-in like I had considered. But again, it's hard to analyze what I'm doing when I just keep getting killed by crap left and right.

Well, there's still a week left before the Fortune Cookie lets me down. Maybe I should go pick up some lotto tickets or something. Maybe then I can pay for some swimming lessons.