so...last weekend I played the worst 20 hands of poker. No matter what I got, I couldn't make it work.

Tonight, it seemed like things were turning around...the key work being seemed...

I was playing in a $5 Hold 'Em single table tournament, and I was playing pretty tight. I made a couple of bad plays, but I managed to take out two players and triple my stack. And then it happened.

I get dealt a QsAh in the big blind. The play wasn't raised, so I checked. The flop brought a 8s2d6s so I called the 300 bet (mistake #1: should have raised) with my flush draw. The turn brings me Ac, I bet 600, which is called. The river brings the 8h, and my two pairs aces and eights. I get check-raised, but I thought that he was trying to bluff me out of my investment, so I called.

I would have never thought about the possibility of a set of eights busting up my two pair, but it did, and I lost 90% of my chips! I was in the small blind in the next hand and made my second big mistake of calling the big blind, having to go all-in on a JTo. Oh, and that's how you lose, in 4th place in a tourney that pays out for the top 3 spots.

***** Hand History for Game 401838788 *****
300/600 TourneyTexasHTGameTable (Limit) (Tournament 2354281) - Wed Feb 18 21:35:23 EST 2004
Table Card Room Table 4805 (Real Money) -- Seat 8 is the button
Total number of players : 4
Seat 2: tdmkl (3945)
Seat 6: minorthird (2675)
Seat 7: MADPOK (970)
Seat 8: bamatallone (410)
tdmkl posts small blind (150)
minorthird posts big blind (300)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to minorthird [ Qs, Ah ]
MADPOK folds.
bamatallone folds.
tdmkl calls (150)
minorthird checks.
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 8s, 2d, 6s ]
tdmkl bets (300)
minorthird calls (300)
** Dealing Turn ** : [ Ac ]
tdmkl checks.
minorthird bets (600)
tdmkl calls (600)
** Dealing River ** : [ 8h ]
tdmkl checks.
minorthird bets (600)
tdmkl raises (1200) to 1200
minorthird calls (600)
** Summary **
Main Pot: 4800
Board: [ 8s 2d 6s Ac 8h ]
tdmkl balance 6345, bet 2400, collected 4800, net +2400 [ Th 8c ] [ three of a kind, eights -- Ac,Th,8c,8s,8h ]
minorthird balance 275, lost 2400 [ Qs Ah ] [ two pairs, aces and eights -- Ah,Ac,Qs,8s,8h ]
MADPOK balance 970, didn't bet (folded)
bamatallone balance 410, didn't bet (folded)