I'm done, part 1

I am no longer a professional poker player.

I will likely be hired as a copy editor at a Texas newspaper on Monday. This weekend's results did not make a difference in my decision to go back to the grind, but they sure encapsulated all the disappointment and frustration I have felt over the last six months.

Start on Friday. The local home game is holding its periodical $400 tournament this weekend. I enter Friday's $60 rebuy tournament to warm up and maybe get a financial jump on the weekend. I also know it will probably be one of the last times I play in any decent-sized poker game for a while.

The tournament is going very well. I chip up and am already one of the chip leaders with 18 of the 44 players remaining when I bust another big stack to take a gigantic lead.

I have been active with my stack. With blinds at 400-800, 100 ante, I limp in early position with T9 of diamonds. Another limper follows along, small blind calls, big blind checks.

Flop QQJ. Big stack in SB bets out 2500, I call. Turn K gives me the straight. SB bets same 2500, I raise to 12000. He thinks for a bit, then calls. River 3, he immediately goes all-in. I call and beat his Q2.

The guy is a typical young aggressive player, but he always comes in drunk and keeps drinking. It is difficult to lay down trips, but I hate his play here. All he can beat is a bluff on the turn. I really hate his play on the river when I will never fold a better hand or call with a worse one.

I am now a huge stack, and I cruise to the final table. It all starts to go awry 8-handed. The loose, former chip leader, who is steaming after losing a couple pots, limps UTG, all fold, I complete A5 in SB, short-stacked BB checks. Flop comes 864 rainbow, I check, BB goes all-in for about half the pot, UTG calls. I have four outs, very possibly seven, and the rest of the hand will probably be checked down with a player all-in. I call.

Turn T, river A. The BB stands up and says, "No!!" when the A hits. I check, and UTG goes all-in for 35K, about the size of the pot. I am stunned. It will cost me over a third of my stack, and I can beat nothing. My kicker will play. I assume he made aces up or has something like AQ, AJ or AT.

I fold and UTG shows K7, nothing. BB triples up with T9. I am livid. I have played a ton of hours with UTG. He is a purely recreational player, but I can't believe he would completely forget about the situation and move in on a dry side pot. "Oh, yeah, I guess I shouldn't have done that," he says after I explain the situation. Christ. Instead of upticking 30K or so, I downtick 13K, and there are still eight players left instead of seven.

UTG busts, and I am still the chip leader with 105K. Five spots pay, first place $2,200. Blinds now 3K-6K with a 1K ante. All fold to me on the button with AQo. The player who is either second or third in chips with nearly 70K is in the BB. He knows I am aggressive, but he is also semi-competent and, I thought, wouldn't want to tangle with the chip leader this close to the money unless he had 99 or better, AK or maybe AQ or AJ suited.

I don't want him to call a standard raise and beat me on the flop when the standard raise is nearly 20 percent of my stack.

I shove for the whole 105K. SB folds and BB starts to think. At first I think maybe he is thinking about calling all the money off with a middle pair, but the more he thinks, the more I realize I have him beat.

I am surprised when he gets up the nerve to call and absolutely blown away when he shows KT of clubs. I turn over my hand, and he says, "Oh, man, I didn't think you were that good. I thought you were stealing." "With what, K9?" I think.

I mean, he actually acted like he expected to be ahead with K-high.

If my hand, which is about a 58-42 percent favorite, holds up, I will have more than 1/3 of the chips in play with six players left. Board comes J543 ... K. FUUUCCCKKK!!!!!

I am left with about 35K, six big blinds. I go through the blinds, then get caught when I am on an actual button steal and go out 7th.

Every poker player has tons of bad-beat stories, but this one just killed me. How could he call as second or third in chips when we're two spots from the money and two players have only about 20K?

I'm embarrassed to say I lost my composure a bit for one of the few times at a poker table. I didn't rant and rave, but I made snarky comments like, "Somebody's stealing again!" whenever someone moved all-in after that hand. "Here comes a steal!" "Everybody's stealing!"

The guy apologized to me later, and I, of course, told him he had nothing to apologize for. I did.

That $2200 (or event $800 for third) would have come in handy. Instead it was on to the single-table satellites for the $400 tournament on Saturday.