Best beat of the game. I had a pair of jacks, so I raised. Guy to my right bets enough to put me all in. There are 212 players left and I really want to get under 100 tonight. But can I lay down pocket jacks? I won a big pot earlier with pocket jacks. My little hand chart says to raise with JJ, but not reraise. I decided it wouldn’t get better and went all in. The raiser had a pair of kings.

Expletives deleted.

But just like you can drown in the river it can save you. River was a jack. My play was mostly right, but I won because of luck.

Next hand I go in, after folding a number of them, I’ve got QQ on the big blind. Everyone folds.

Later…

Well I’ve made it to the second break. There are 56 players left and I’m one of them. I’m not the worst off but not the best by any means. Bluffing will not work because I have 22,500 and the big stack is 262,00 and there is a 248,000 as well. They’ve already be betting more than I have. So unless everyone has crap, I’ll probably be pushed all in.

Even later 12:25AM…

Finished 54th. Not bad and a new record.

BTW the tournament was No-Limit Texas Hold’m at PokerPages.com.

Since I seem to be doing this alot, I’m adding a new category for poker. I’ll go move some old messages into it.