I guess I ought to start with a recap of Saturday night's poker tourney.  It was a little bigger tourney, a little over 40 people so it paid 4.  Not that I got overly close to the money but it wasn't from a lack of trying.  The tourney started out so/so for me.  I couldn't draw a decent card to save my life but I did make some good reads and managed to pick up some pots with crap like J7 and 68.  After a bit more than an hour I had not seen any pocket pairs or big aces, in fact my best hand preflop was A8 but I had increased my starting stack from 6K to a little over 7.  I wasn't satisfied but since I hadn't really had a hand I could attack with, I was feeling I had played ok.

A little later I'm one off the button with 4-5 of diamonds.  Loose guy to my right is the only limper so I raise it up.  I figure he has to dump anything but a good hand as he only has a bit over 2K left.  The button to my left calls as does the limper.   Flop is 9-8-5 with all hearts.  It's checked to me and I put in 2/3 pot bet.  Guy on my left thinks hard for a minute and while he's thinking the idiot limper to my right calls for almost all of his chips.  This guy was a twit, not paying attention and betting out of turn.  So the guy to my left folds and the guy on my right is still in.  He might have nothing, he might have a good hand, you can't tell about this guy.  Next card is a black 2.  I put him in for his last hundred.  He makes an unhappy call and flips up 10-8 offsuit.  Calls a raise for almost half his chips with that crap then calls almost all the rest of them with 2nd pair.  I didn't get any river help and I'm down to just over 4500 after losing to the worst player at my table.  Of course he distributed my chips to everyone else at the table for me.  He went out not too long afterwards, again after not paying attention and betting out of turn. 

The PQ got moved to my table right before the break.  She was doing slightly better than I was but had been through a rough start and come back ok.  Maybe she brought me some luck because not long after she sits down I get AQ suited.  What?  And ace with a face card?  I raised it up, got 3 callers and of course flopped nothing.  Gal to my right bets and my cards go into the muck.  After the break I started getting dangerously close to short stacked.  Guy two seats to my right had been playing pretty well, pretty aggressive but had made a couple of misreads that cost him every time he got ahead.  He had raised my big blind a couple of times.  He tried again and this time I pushed all in which was a fair portion of his stack and he showed an ace and let it go.  That got me some much needed chips but unfortunately I was too soon moved to another table when mine broke.

The next table was much more aggressive and I had a hard time getting anything going.  I also had a complete lack of cards.  I didn't panic or do anything stupid and in fact picked a couple of nice spots and pushed all in post flop to steal pots and keep some chips but the cards stayed bad and my stack got shorter.  Finally I checked from the big blind when 3 people limped in with K5.  Flop was K-10-8.  I pushed all in and the big stack said, he was getting the odds and had to call.  No he wasn't getting the right odds, he was only about 20% sitting there with Q8 for bottom pair but of course he hit the Q on the turn and I did not improve and went out 15th.

I went to play a little hold em while my wife continued in the tourney.  She and I had tussled one hand when I was in the big blind.  I was sitting on Q7 of diamonds and checked after PQ and 2 others limped.  Flop was 4-5-6 with one diamond.  It gets checked around to my wife and she lays out a pot sized bet.  I was torn between wanting to call and chase my straight and back door flush draws and folding.  If there were 2 diamonds on the flop I probably call for all my chips but without it I felt I had to lay it down as did everyone else.  PQ had 66 for top set she told me later. 

My luck on the hold em tables was a continuation of the tourney.  I made a few chips up early but then they dribbled out as I got crap after crap hand.  A couple of times I raised only to get multiple callers and no flops.  When the PQ got busted in the tourney in 8th place I was down to about 16 bucks.  She came over and I told her just a few more hands as I was getting short.  Next hand I have Q8 of clubs.  No one raised and I called in the small blind.  Flop was Q 4 2 with 2 clubs.  I lead out for 4 bucks and got 3 callers.  Turn is the king of clubs.  Bingo, finally hit a hand.  I check and one of the guys in late position makes a good sized bet.  I push all in for a little more and get 2 callers.  One guy had 2 pair, the other had a lower flush and I got back to even in that one hand.

To recap, I thought I played pretty well all in all.  I was tight but aggressive when I did get into a hand.  I took good shots at most hands.  I probably made a bad move in raising post flop when I had the 4-5 but I felt it was pretty likely I had the best hand with a pair of 5s at that point.  That started my downfall I suppose but the lack of playable hands in a fast tourney structure really did me in.  I played a little too tight at times I think but part of that was waiting for my hands to turn.  I figured at some point I had to get some cards coming my way and the only way to get that is to still be in the game.  Little did I know that my run of bad cards was going to run through the night.  Oh well.  That's how it goes sometimes.

Not much else is going on around here right now.  Being in the investment banking/brokerage industry I have been watching the stock market taking a major dump.  A number of my stocks got punished pretty good this past week but I'm sure I've mentioned before that I had been getting into some gold stocks.  I thought about it this week as most of them were staying about even and some were going up nicely.  I didn't realize that between my regular and retirement accounts, I had 5 different gold miners.  They were the only ones that didn't get whacked though.   It feels like the stock market and maybe the economy is at a tipping point right now.  Some good news and maybe the economy breaks out and heads to new highs by the end of the year.  That's not too far fetched even after the past week or so as compared to other areas like Europe and even China to some extent, the US is doing pretty good.  But the recent issues with extending the debt ceiling seems to have brought into focus for many people how fragile our economic state is and how much in debt our government is at this time.  Also the debt problems in Europe seem to be spreading, not getting better.  Where does it end?  Will it impact business here?  I'm sure some of the big banks here hold debt for some of the more iffy European countries like Spain and Portugal and Italy.  So it might be a good time to get a bit more defensive with my stock holdings.  I'm gonna look into that tomorrow.  As for tonight, I'm beat.  I'm off to bed.  Maybe my writing will improve tomorrow.  Or I'll win the lottery.  Good night and good luck