Ten hands into a Full Tilt $10K Guarantee turbo tournament and I pick up on the small blind (40/80). UTG with nearly three times my chips raises to 200 and is called by UTG+2 who has a little less than I do. I push all-in and the big stack drops out. UTG+2 has KhKc. The cards come out and the kings take me down to 95 chips.

on the button, I’m all-in before the flop with the big blind putting in the extra 15 chips to call. The flop misses us both, he’s got an 8 instead of a 9 to go with his ace, and I’m up to 230.

isn’t the best hand in this situation, but my chips go all in again. With three folds ahead of me, perhaps I should have been thinking that the hands on the other side were all potential greats, but the small bling raises, forcing out any other players. A on  the flop and on the turn give me a gut-shot straight draw. Or it would if the guy I was up against didn’t have two of the kings I need on the table in front of him.