A quickie

I cashed in the 12K last night on Full Tilt and I'm kinda pissed that I did. Why, you ask? We're 10-15 players from the bubble. I've got 6,400 with blinds at 250/500/50, get pocket 9s in EP and make a standard 3x BB bet. Player to my immediate left, sitting on 9500, calls. Flop comes A-K-7. Hating the flop, I check and he checks as well. Turn is another king. I hate this card also. I check again. He bets 2,500 and I fold.

I had no idea where I was in this hand and did not feel comfortable firing out, given my now very small stack relative to the blinds and the bubble looming. Kaellinn18 and I discussed the hand afterward and he suggested I needed to lead out after the flop. He's right, of course, but I wimped out knowing that I could fold my way into the money.

That hand harkened back to my early weak-tight tournament days on Party, where I played to cash and not to win. I needed chips to go deep, had an opportunity to build my stack and failed to take advantage. Sure, he might have called whatever I fired out, crippling me and leading to an ignominous bubble. So what? Instead, I cash, finishing 41st and making a huge $40 profit (another peep token entry). You can't play to cash in these things. You play to win. Nearly 12 hours later, I remain haunted by my poor play there.

Both Kaellinn and Iak were entered in the tournament. Both played well despite a severe shortage of decent cards and both suffered vicious bad beats by donkeys with the bubble in sight. Sick stuff.

I've got another token I plan to use (won two in two tries yesterday) today or tomorrow. The important lesson learned from the above-mentioned debacle will be applied with extreme prejudice when that situation arises again.