I admit, there is nothing worse than going out of a tournament on the bubble, but cruising through the bubble as one of the chip leaders, going deep into the tourney and then crashing out just short of the big money, must come close.

This happened to me last night.

Stars $35k gtd $10 w/ rebuys. 1139 players, prizepool $48280, 1st place: $12070

I haven't played many tourneys in these last few months so I'm taking this as a learning curve again.

I rebought right away to get 3000 chips, i didn't rebuy again and added on to end the rebuy period with about 8500, not great but workable. I managed to work this down to about 2500 within 30 minutes by calling, drawing and missing. (What a donk!)

So from the 2500 i thought "f*ck i really need to tighten up or i'm going out here" By the end of the 2nd hour i managed to work my way up to 17000 "phewww"

During 3rd hour i managed to double that up and more when i caught KK v QQ and was sitting about $45000 when the following rush came.

AA v 22 for about 4000 chips: he spikes a 2 on the door and I'm down to 41k

Very next hand, KK gets it all in v QQ and boom! I double up to about 75000

The next hand was a blank, giving me time to breathe but the next one my bb gets raised and i call with 77, the flop comes 568 rainbow and he bets out. I move all in thinking he has to assume i have a huge o/p and even if he calls... what a draw. He goes into the tank for almost his full time and I'm convinced he's about to lay it down when he calls and flips over 44! NO 7 PLEASE!!!! This is a huge hand for almost all of my chips. He misses totally and I'm up to 145000 3rd in tourney :-D

There are still about 150 players left at this point, 99 wil get paid, Now of the tourneys I have played lately I've bubbled a few times so I'm cautious with my big stack and just use it to make a few small steald now and then to maintain it, but basically I'm just looking to cruise through the bubble at this point.

The bubble breaks and I'm still top 5 or 6 with about 145k and now I'm in profit ;o)

With about 80 ppl left i get QQ all in v JJ for about 50k and I'm sitting nicely on 200k

Then i get card dead.

I make a few steals and manage to maintain my stack for a while, but then i get reraised twice in a row, and have to lay it down, I HATE doing that! so bad for table image. Blinds at this point are 6000/12000 so it's a fairly big chunk of change too.

I have to tighten up again and a few blinds pass, (stolen from me of course) and I'm down to about 140K again. The average has crept up to about 180K by this point tho so I'm down to about 25th of 40.

I wait and i wait and a few more go out, I make a steal and maintain my stack yay!

Then it happens, blinds are 8000/16000 and from early position i have AJoff, I raise the standard 48k and mid pos. reraises me all in for the rest. Now, this is one of the guys who repopped me before, If i lay down again here I'm below 100K and virtually in last place with an M of 4, and the blinds about to hit again, all things considered I decide to call and hope we're off to the races.

He shows KK

I hit a J on the flop and am praying big time for a suckout but alas, no more help :-(

Just like that I'm out in 34th. A couple tables from the big money and I'm dumped on the rail just staring at the screen.

*gutted*

I'm gonna go see how many dead hookers i can fit in my trunk.

Back on DeepRed2, I see. Any particular reason? Getting back into the tournament circuit, and want people to say, "Oh, I remember him, he'll crack my aces with crap, I'll steer clear of him."

That's pretty much the reason. Headgames. Whether it's for me or other people, webby sucked! whereas deep got paid. I dunno, I'll let you know when i win one :p

And Deep has no chat any more, EVER. So maybe that helps too?