Symmetry

This one hurts.

There are 43 players left in a $5 rebuy on Stars (2,127 runners). I've just gotten moved after losing a big pot with A-K from the BB. (UTG had raised to 36K and two short stacks move in from LP, putting another 120K in the pot. Sitting on 290K, I push to isolate UTG. He folds and I find myself up against K-J and pocket 7s. An ace flops but K-J turns Broadway.) That hand puts me at 220K, the first time I've been below the average since the first level of the tournament.

I'm still feeling good, comfortable even, on what has been a smooth voyage into the semi deep. My reads have been spot on, and for awhile, morons have been giving me chips. (Got it up to 380K at one point, but lost a bit to the blinds and re-raise pressure.) It'll be tough sledding to make the final table, but I'm only a double-up or two from having a realistic chance.

After a half-dozen hands at the new table, my stack at 211K, I find pocket aces UTG. I initially consider limping, but decide to play it safe and raise 3xBB to 48K. All folds to the blinds, who both come in. (SB has around 500K, the BB around 225K.)

The flop looks good for me: 4-3-Q. SB leads for 75K and BB folds. I push my last 163K hoping he has Q-something. He calls. With 4-3. No miracle queen or ace for me and I'm gone. In 43rd place. To an ass-clown with 4-3.

Painful indeed.