squandered opportunities...

ever feel like you missed some great chances to capitalize?

had a huge stack in the 15k rebuy early in the day and donked off my whole stack

Was a huge chipleader in the 20k guaranteed, donked off my whole stack

made final table of a 33 buy-in MTT and donked out in 7th instead of hitting a nice big payday


who knows if i'll have chances like these in the near future, hopefully so.

I was chip leader out of 25 remaining in a Pokerstars $1 Million qualifier tournament which gave entry to the top 20 players. I finished 25th, so yes, I can sympathise

Was that the $3 re-buy donk fest ? I remember finishing 27th in one of them 2 weeks ago. 4 hours of poker for nothing

I can totally sympathize! I find myself often in MTT's in the top 5, top 10 with a substantial amount of chips (there have been times when I've been chip leader as well). For some reason (swelled head? over confident? underestimation of my opponents? just plain boredom?) I seem to end up doing the exact same thing. I chase, bluff, and just take too many chances thinking, "I can afford the call". After a few of those dumb decisions, I quickly find myself on the bubble (again). Can be quite frustrating, but I know it's my own fault.

I remember a while ago I was down to the top 10 of a $10 buy-in NL Hold 'Em Tourney, 2nd chip stack by a whole lot. I'd been playing really well and getting some good cards. I made a remark about how I'd never made a final table at one of these, and was excited to be only one place away. This is when the poker Gods laughed at me. I was dealt AK, AA, and AQ successively. Wait, this is a bad thing? Well, the AK I didn't hit the flop with, but I was overly aggressive and lost many chips due to my own fault. Next I put a medium stack JJ all-in with my AA and sure enough a J hit. Short-stacked now, I went all-in with my AQ, got called and came up empty. Out in 10th place. From hero to zero in 3 hands.

I think we all have stories about how we didn't quite play up to par when it came time when we should have. Then also there are time we played well but the poker gods piddled on us big time. All you can do is go on to the last tourney. If you are lucky enough to get your buy in and a little profit out of the situation then you can at least have some money for the next few.

Yeah. Don't be so hard on yourself. Your play yesterday was very good with the exception of a few hands. Stuff like this happens...all you can do is remember, learn from your mistakes, and move on. Go get em!