so...last night I sat down for a "quick" $5 limit hold 'em SnG on Party. Now, when I say "quick" I really mean 90 minutes! I swear it was the longest SnG. Ever.

About 12 hands in, I had an opportunity to play the Hammer, but I was in early position, and thought better of it. I would've lost.

I was playing pretty tight. I wanted to avenge my last 4th place/out of the money loss.

I was in the small blind when the blinds hit 100/200, and I was dealt 9d9h. I called the preflop raise -- raise was by short stack...obvious strategic raise for the blinds. The flop brought ThTs3c, and an all-in raise by the short stack. I call, and the turn is 3d, with an As river. Short stack had K7o, and I knocked him out with my tens and nines. I managed to double up in the process, too, which brought me to second in chips, by a narrow margin.

Another Hammer opportunity came and went...

Then there were four.

This is about the time that I start having flashbacks. And I'm the short stack.

I calm myself with wired nines, doubling up and taking 1100 from a board pair of fours.

And then I got blindsided.

200/400 TourneyTexasHTGameTable (Limit) (Tournament 2422216) - Tue Feb 24 23:22:08 EST 2004
Table Card Room Table 3709 (Real Money) -- Seat 2 is the button
Total number of players : 4
Seat 1: Crackshot (2580)
Seat 2: JUDE1733 (1205)
Seat 6: minorthird (2100)
Seat 9: Tasia_1024 (2115)
minorthird posts small blind (100)
Tasia_1024 posts big blind (200)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to minorthird [ 9s, Jc ]
Crackshot folds.
JUDE1733 folds.
minorthird calls (100) should I have raised?
Tasia_1024 checks.
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 8s, 5h, Td ]
minorthird checks. i'm thinking open-ended straight draw
Tasia_1024 checks.
** Dealing Turn ** : [ Jd ]
minorthird bets (400)
Tasia_1024 calls (400)
** Dealing River ** : [ 7d ] got the straight...
minorthird checks.
Tasia_1024 bets (400)
minorthird raises (800) to 800 blinded by the light, set up like a...
Tasia_1024 calls (400)
** Summary **
Main Pot: 2800
Board: [ 8s 5h Td Jd 7d ]
Crackshot balance 2580, didn't bet (folded)
JUDE1733 balance 1205, didn't bet (folded)
minorthird balance 700, lost 1400 [ 9s Jc ] [ a straight, seven to jack -- Jc,Td,9s,8s,7d ]
Tasia_1024 balance 3515, bet 1400, collected 2800, net +1400 [ Qd 5d ] [ a flush, queen high -- Qd,Jd,Td,7d,5d ]

The flush! Bullshit! Ok...that's the extent of my Hellmuthism. Chapter read, lesson learned (we'll see about that!).

And then there was three...and I was one of them -- I was out-chipped 3:1. We played a mind-numbingly boring game of three-way tennis, just rotating who stole the blinds, for what seemed like an hour. I couldn't get cards to save my life, and if I did, I was too tight to use them. I ended up getting blinded out on a 79o.

I need to focus on my heads up game a bit more, and figure out when/how to shift gears.