I had an incredibly frustrating poker experience last night. I was in $10 multi table tourney which started with 500 or so people, with 1st paying $12k. We're down to seven people left, and I'm in 2nd. At this point the table became incredibly tight and slow. Everyone seemed to be taking their full time allotment and it took forever. Finally I decided to take advantage by being aggressive, and I knocked out a player. Then things got even tighter!! I slowly moved up until I had a commanding chip lead. Then a small stack goes all-in, when he had been just raising preflop, so I called with my pocket 3's. He turns over 4-5 suited and gets a 4 on the river to beat me. Very next hand I have AJ and raise a small stack all-in. He calls with AQ and I don't improve. I've lost about half my chips in these two hands, but I'm still close to the new chip leader, and then I get AQ on the next hand. Now mind you, this is three hands in a row I'm relating to you. So I bet, a guy who barely has me covered raises, I go all-in, he calls with KQ. KQ is like a 9-2 underdog to AQ, so I'm feeling confident until he gets his K on the turn and I'm out. From dominant chip leader to bum on three straight hands I played correctly. I ended up with a $250 profit for 5 hours of work instead of $1250.

I would have preferred to go out, but I'm having some stomach issues. :(