In the middle of a tournament right now, but on a break. Curious on how much everyone thinks I screwed this one up...

Blinds are 100/200 and I'm the SB with 9000 in chips. The BB is at 8800 and the only player ahead of me in chips at the table is the UTG player with 10k - but he folded.

Up to this point, I've taken a good number of pots - but recently, I've been "caught" on follow up bets by the UTG player (which is how he's earned his stack). Most of the table is pretty weak, folding to PFR or the follow up bets - with the exception of this guy.

Anyway, UTG+1 and UTG+2 both limp in (7300 and 6000 respectively). UTG+2 is new to the table. It folds around to me with A9s. I raise to 1000, which folds the BB but surprisingly both the limpers call.

Now I've got a problem - there's 3200 in the pot and I'm out of position. The flop is a rainbow Q35 with one of my suit. After some internal deliberation, I bet out 1400. Again, to my surprise, both players call. Now there's 7400 in the pot and both players have 3-4k.

The turn is the 2h - making 2 of my suit and a gutshot straight draw. What to do now?

Now I decided to check to see what would happen. The first limper now bets 1200 - a worthless bet, and is immediately raised by the shortest of the 3 of us all in. Its 3500 to me to call, and ~11k+ in the pot.

In other words - I probably should've folded preflop rather than get myself in this situation.

In the end, I decided to reraise - to force the other player all-in or to get him to fold. He folded pretty quickly and I found my opponent had a set of fives from the flop. Oh dear!

The river came to my rescue though - a delightful 6h - to give me my flush.

So what to do where? I feel I misplayed all over the place - and the preflop raise was pretty much the start of it... comments?

Well - I'm still in the tournament amazingly - we just passed the outer money line. Tournament 26171800 on Pokerstars if anyone feels like sweating me. I'll update further if I get deep.

Right now I'm sitting in 27th out of 149 chip position with 18k in chips.

Wish me luck.

(Here's the hand history in case something in my narrative doesn't jive:

PokerStars Game #5256973185: Tournament #26171800, $2.00+$0.20 Hold'em No Limit - Level VI (100/200) - 2006/06/14 - 23:10:52 (ET)
Table '26171800 135' 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: jokerzwild6 (5924 in chips)
Seat 2: mom2map (1985 in chips)
Seat 3: Juss44 (2895 in chips)
Seat 4: NoPattern (1080 in chips)
Seat 5: rosepetal718 (3560 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 6: Starstealer (9055 in chips)
Seat 7: Wykes (8870 in chips)
Seat 8: gee-Q (10010 in chips)
Seat 9: lynngood (7277 in chips)
Starstealer: posts small blind 100
Wykes: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Starstealer [Ah 9h]
gee-Q: folds
lynngood: calls 200
jokerzwild6: calls 200
mom2map: folds
Juss44: folds
NoPattern: folds
rosepetal718: folds
Starstealer: raises 800 to 1000
Wykes: folds
lynngood: calls 800
jokerzwild6: calls 800
*** FLOP *** [Qd 3h 5s]
Starstealer: bets 1400
lynngood: calls 1400
jokerzwild6: calls 1400
*** TURN *** [Qd 3h 5s]
Starstealer: checks
lynngood: bets 1200
jokerzwild6: raises 2324 to 3524 and is all-in
Starstealer: raises 2324 to 5848
lynngood: folds
*** RIVER *** [Qd 3h 5s 2h]
jokerzwild6 said, "omfg"
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Starstealer: shows [Ah 9h] (a flush, Ace high)
jokerzwild6: shows [5c 5h] (three of a kind, Fives)
Starstealer collected 15648 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 15648 | Rake 0
Board [Qd 3h 5s 2h 6h]
Seat 1: jokerzwild6 showed [5c 5h] and lost with three of a kind, Fives
Seat 2: mom2map folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: Juss44 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: NoPattern folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: rosepetal718 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: Starstealer (small blind) showed [Ah 9h] and won (15648) with a flush, Ace high
Seat 7: Wykes (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 8: gee-Q folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: lynngood folded on the Turn

Well - we're down to 44 players. I was almost out a few times - but I'm hanging in there. I've got 13.5k right now, moving on to 1k/2k blinds with a 100 ante - so I'm definitely not out of the woods.

My downfall occured when my AKs ran into A8o only to catch an 8 on the flop. Then I flipped around like a dying fish for a while. Eventually, I caught tens versus nines. The nines caught a set on the flop, but I managed to catch a four-card flush on the board to take it back and bring me up to 20k again.

Well - break's almost over - wish me luck.

Wow. That's a tough one. If you were actually perceived as a tight player I think I like this preflop raise without anyone showing strength. The set played this perfectly. Since the turn push put him all-in though, you are getting the right odds here with your combined draws. You may have even thought your Aces were outs. This was a really tough situation which I'm not sure you could get away from.

Again, I really think your opponent played that beautifully. The only draw out there was a straight draw on the flop and nobody that could raise or call a raise in a tournament would normally have cards that would fit that straight so he may have been right to just call on the flop to try and get you to put more money in on the turn. More well played by your opponent than blundered by you. On the turn he is giving you odds to call with your gutshot draw, but that was one of only 2 cards that could have come to give you a double draw.

Well - like I said - I feel I completely screwed the pooch on the hand. I'm still getting back into poker and some of the plays that I've made have been downright poor - which is part of the reason why I've been struggling to build my bankroll back up. Sure - progress is there - but it is mostly slow progress.

The only positive I can really say is that I've played 10 tournaments this month and made the money in 8 of them. Sadly - this is my best finish out of the bunch though. Here's hoping for a good cash soon...

Here's a pretty pivotal hand for me:

PokerStars Game #5267280207: Tournament #26171885, $2.00+$0.20 Hold'em No Limit - Level XI (600/1200) - 2006/06/16 - 00:35:56 (ET)
Table '26171885 99' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: jrob2517 (8430 in chips)
Seat 2: eggfinance (40170 in chips)
Seat 3: ICON755 (41888 in chips)
Seat 4: Healey59 (37247 in chips)
Seat 5: iubballref (15699 in chips)
Seat 6: gabo05 (26700 in chips)
Seat 7: appliances (5631 in chips)
Seat 8: maizenbluefb (256 in chips)
Seat 9: Starstealer (16109 in chips)
jrob2517: posts the ante 75
eggfinance: posts the ante 75
ICON755: posts the ante 75
Healey59: posts the ante 75
iubballref: posts the ante 75
gabo05: posts the ante 75
appliances: posts the ante 75
maizenbluefb: posts the ante 75
Starstealer: posts the ante 75
maizenbluefb: posts small blind 181 and is all-in
Starstealer: posts big blind 1200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Starstealer [8c Qc]
jrob2517: folds
eggfinance: folds
ICON755: calls 1200
Healey59: calls 1200
iubballref: folds
gabo05: folds
appliances: folds
Starstealer: checks
*** FLOP *** [6c Ac 2c]
Starstealer: checks
ICON755: checks
Healey59: bets 3600
Starstealer: raises 3600 to 7200
ICON755: folds
Healey59: calls 3600
*** TURN *** [6c Ac 2c]
Starstealer: bets 7634 and is all-in
Healey59: folds
*** RIVER *** [6c Ac 2c 3d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Starstealer: shows [8c Qc] (a flush, Ace high)
Starstealer collected 17457 from side pot
maizenbluefb: shows [4s 4c] (a pair of Fours)
Starstealer collected 1399 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 18856 Main pot 1399. Side pot 17457. | Rake 0
Board [6c Ac 2c 3d Qh]
Seat 1: jrob2517 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: eggfinance folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: ICON755 folded on the Flop
Seat 4: Healey59 folded on the Turn
Seat 5: iubballref folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: gabo05 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: appliances (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: maizenbluefb (small blind) showed [4s 4c] and lost with a pair of Fours
Seat 9: Starstealer (big blind) showed [8c Qc] and won (18856) with a flush, Ace high

Oh and 25th out of 67 left now.

Okay - here's a steal raise that I got away from. I didn't feel too good about it - but I was better than the original hand I posted:

PokerStars Game #5267340601: Tournament #26171885, $2.00+$0.20 Hold'em No Limit - Level XI (600/1200) - 2006/06/16 - 00:42:10 (ET)
Table '26171885 99' 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: jrob2517 (7530 in chips)
Seat 2: eggfinance (37470 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 3: ICON755 (37988 in chips)
Seat 4: Healey59 (27347 in chips)
Seat 5: iubballref (15399 in chips)
Seat 6: gabo05 (32400 in chips)
Seat 7: appliances (7731 in chips)
Seat 8: KK4LOUIE (43965 in chips)
Seat 9: Starstealer (26265 in chips)
jrob2517: posts the ante 75
eggfinance: posts the ante 75
ICON755: posts the ante 75
Healey59: posts the ante 75
iubballref: posts the ante 75
gabo05: posts the ante 75
appliances: posts the ante 75
KK4LOUIE: posts the ante 75
Starstealer: posts the ante 75
Healey59: posts small blind 600
iubballref: posts big blind 1200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Starstealer [8s As]
KK4LOUIE is connected
gabo05: folds
Starstealer said, "hey buddy"
appliances: folds
Starstealer said, "how's it going?"
KK4LOUIE: folds
Starstealer: raises 2400 to 3600
jrob2517: folds
eggfinance: folds
ICON755: calls 3600
Healey59: calls 3000
iubballref: folds
*** FLOP *** [8c Qh 2h]
Healey59: bets 2400
eggfinance has returned
Starstealer: folds
ICON755: calls 2400
*** TURN *** [8c Qh 2h]
Healey59: bets 3600
ICON755: calls 3600
*** RIVER *** [8c Qh 2h 6s]
Healey59: checks
ICON755: bets 6000
Healey59: folds
ICON755 collected 24675 from pot
ICON755: shows [Qs Kc] (a pair of Queens)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 24675 | Rake 0
Board [8c Qh 2h 6s 9d]
Seat 1: jrob2517 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: eggfinance folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: ICON755 (button) collected (24675)
Seat 4: Healey59 (small blind) folded on the River
Seat 5: iubballref (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: gabo05 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: appliances folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: KK4LOUIE folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: Starstealer folded on the Flop