[CincyLady]

Good for you, Dog boy! I will tell all the two plus two'rs here, play quality hands, and play tight and you'll get your seat to the ME.

I was at table 12, Seat 1, and that's where I stayed all night.

I was at for the most part, a very tight table, and most of the players respected each other.

The exception was the calling station donkey in seat 4. He would call just about anything, with just about any ace.

One word of warning here, you need to be sure you raise larger than you normally do, preflop. IE: Instead of 3 times the blind preflop, you should go 4 or 5 times the blind. This because in another hand, this other quality player raised with his A/K preflop only 2 or 3 times the blind, and got called by someone (other than the donkey) with Ace/4 suited, and almost got felted when the guy got quads on the turn. I later told Mike (the Quality player, if it had been me, he would of been felted, because I could see Mike was ready to put in all his chips and call anything.

As for me, I also was card dead most of the night, but alas, I went out just after it got down to 5 tables (the final 3 tables will qualify for their ME seats each night). This one play is what started my downfall.

I'm in the BB, the blinds are 400 and 800, with the ante 100, and the donkey in seat 4, raises it up to 2500. Mike the quality player, who only 2500 left, goes in for that.

Now, I know that Mike has a hand, he's a really great player, and I've played up against him before. He in turn knows he's in deep dodo if I call this.

I look down and find A/K o/s, and since this will knock a player out if I win, I simply call.

Flop comes, all cards lower than 9, and rainbow, but higher than 3.

I check, Donkey now goes all in (with a dry pot no less), and he has me covered.

I have no pair and no draw, I have to fold.

Donkey turns over his pocket pair of 3's, Mike turns over pocket jacks.

Turn comes, it's an ace (of course), Mike thanks the donkey for protecting his hand (donkey goes out about 1/2 hr later btw).

In the meantime, this put a dent into my stack, and I know I'm going to have to work it to get it back up again.

I am able to take down a few small pots, but I'm short stacked.

Finally with the blinds at 1k and 2k, and the ante at 200, I am down to just around 8k.

I look down (gawd I wish I hadn't or had been in the big blind instead of the UTG), and see pocket 2's. I've been card dead for over an hour here, and decide like it or not, I've got to go with my baby pair.

Just my luck, the guy next to me wakes up with A/K o/s, and calls, flop brings an Ace, turn a king, and river another ace, and I'm out.

I still have 3 more chances, tonight, Wednesday night, and Thursday night.