Vitals:

• Buy-In: $70
• Starting Stack: 4000
• Rebuys: 2 Rebuys @ 20 each for 4000 chips
• Number of Players: 70
• Number Paid: 9

First Break Highlights: Friendly table with two dudes in lines of work similar to mine including an Asian gent to the left of me. Slow start as I fail to win the first 7 pots I enter. Took a dent at Level II (50/100) when I get pocket tens and raise to 300 with two callers. Flop is two overs, I C-Bet for 500 and am raised by my "colleague to the left" and give up the pot. At Level III (75/150) I limp in with Pocket Nines and again my colleague raises to 800. I know calling would put me below 50% of my starting stack; but I must see the flop as my read is Big Slick. I'll fold to A or K, else All in. Flop is Jc8c6h. I'm first to act, so I put them in. He instacalls his Pocket Jacks. Could I have read it any worse??!? But the turn is Qc and I have a club so I have 12 outs (normally 13, but a 6c gives him a boat). The river is Ac. For the second night in a row, I get a lucky break. Before the break, I get pocket Jacks and call another raise. This play has worked to great results when I have hit sets or have the overpair. Of course, in the late stages it would have been a mando shove. Undercards flop and I check-raised the raiser on the flow then made a strong bet on the turn after another undercard and he mucks the hand. With my double-rebuy, I'm sitting good with about 11,000 chips.

Second Break Highlights: I lose five pots including a large win with what is becoming my least favorite hand: Pocket Eights. I don't ever recall a live tournament where wired 8s did me any good. Based on my online and live stats, there is a huge inflection point in profit from 9s to 8s -- in that 9s make money and 8s lose money for me. As blinds start climbing and I keep not winning, I hit my danger zone: Ten Big Blinds with blinds 300/600 and 50 Antes. From there I only have one play: Jam or fold. I shove AK, AJ with no takers which keeps me buoyed at 10 BBs. Players are dropping out and we are down to 3 tables. I go into the 2nd Break with 6000 chips.

Third Break Highlights: With Blinds 400/800, I come out jammin' UTG with pocket 7s to get back to 10 BBs. I make an unfortunate non-call at the Small Blind with J8s. The Button raised to 1800. It would have been 1500 more to call and I felt like I would have been in a deep deficit. But two players did call and the flop was JJT. With two shoves at the flop, the raiser had AK and one of the limpers had QJ. At first, I thanked myself for not calling. But when that 8 hit the river, I knew I blew my chance to win the tournament [Incredibly, the dude that won that hand busted out before me]. I went back to JAM_BOT mode and picked up Blinds and Antes with KT. Then I went UTG with Pocket 3s. Blinds were going up to 1000/2000 the next hand. While I despise Crabs, I made the desparate push and was called by the Big Blind with ATo. Flow was good: 876, the turn 8, not so good, and the river a counterfeiting 6. What an awful way to go.

As I did the post-mortem, I seem to have lost my concentration and skill in reading hands. When I thought the dude had Big Slick, he had a big pair. And in the J8s hand, when I thought he had a dominating pair, he had AK and would have given me a fair chance in a race situation. This is where Black Friday might be hurting me, because it is hard to practice this in the midst of a live tournament.