I think I played some crappy poker, and combined with cold cards, I won one legitimate pot, stole a couple (or had the best second-best hand), and watched helplessly as everybody else built up their stacks. My worst heartbreak was not losing a hand, but pushing when I was low-stacked, and I put myself all-in w/KK*, and my opponent flips the other two kings. That would have kept me in the game, but only splitting the blinds on that hand really knocked the wind out of me.
I will fault myself for not being agressive at all. I didn't raise preflop w/anything other than the kings until I was down to 6M, not that I was getting cards worth raising with, but....
There was one particular hand where I was in the BB, and the button limps, and the SB completes. The SB had seemed pretty tight. I turn over QTos, and for a brief moment I consider raising them, but then the impulse subsides, and I choose to see the flop, decide if I have anything. Tragic mistake, as the SB limped on Qxo, and caught his two pair (Q4? Q3? Q5? It was pretty bad) and proceeded to milk me on the flop and on the river, as I had top pair, and he had two pair.
There were a few other situations where I could have considered getting agressive, but chose not to. The guy on my immediate left was playing agressive, so I was hoping that me might do my raising for me, but it never seemed to work out that way.
The worst part in the cold card situation is when you feel you've got accurate reads on certain players, and there's absolutely nothing you can do about it. I felt there were at least 3 players whose chips I could have sucked up if I could catch hands when they had second best hands, but I wasn't even catching second best hands. These three players were also, in my opinion, not decent bluffing candidates at all.
Wah wah wah.
PS:: Techapparatus - I'm dying to know what you reraised me with on that 993 flop. I have a hard time believing that you had a nine, but I did believe that there was at least a 60% chance that you had me beat.
PPS: Good game overall. I liked the blind structure, I liked the players. If I get a chance to go back, I will offer to be the dedicated dealer at one table, as I like having a dedicated dealer better than a rotating dealer. The action tends to go much smoother that way. Extra props to the gracious hosts for offering some tasty beverages.
*Coincidentally, my first hand at the cash table, I get dealt KK, raise with it, get one caller, who calls my flop bet, checks the turn, and bets the pot on the river. I made a crying call to see his trip 4s, and he turns over AA.
