Very Bad Call

   I had a day off work on Friday and decided to play in the 888 Deep Stack Tournament at 10.30. You get 3000 starting chips and the opening blinds are 10/20, giving you 150 big blinds to start with. There are no rebuys or add-ons; this is my kind of tournament. Here are some edited highlights.
   Early on I get KJ on the button, so I raise 4x the blind (4xb) to narrow the field. With a couple of callers, I hit top pair and a flush draw on the flop. I bet half the pot and get one caller. The turn gives me two pair. I put in a bet of 3/4 pot and the opposition folds, adding about 600 more chips to my stack. A good start.
   I bet 4xb pre-flop with JJ. I get re-raised to 10xb, so I fold my Jacks. The hand continues and at the end the raiser shows KK. A good fold.
   This time I get KK. I raise and get one caller. The flop is all low cards. The caller puts in a decent sized bet and, after some thought, I raise enough to put him all-in. He calls, showing 5 7 (!), giving him bottom pair and a straight draw. He hits a straight on the turn and then there is a straight on the board on the river. A split pot. Hilarious.
   I have AK and an Ace comes on the river. I end up all-in against one other player who has A 4. I double up.
   With only one player limping in I raise 2xb from the big blind with K 8, and get called. Out of position, with a marginal hand and no help from the flop, I put in a continuation bet and get called. Still hoping to push the opposition off the hand, I have another go on the turn. This time I get re-raised all-in and have to fold with egg on my face. Got rid of about 1000 of my chips with this move.
   I call a 3xb bet with 99. The flop looks fairly safe, so when my opponent makes a pot-sized bet, I call. When a 9 comes on the river, giving me trips, I call the other player's all-in bet. It turns out he was betting on Ace high. Another (almost) double-up.
   With 8000 chips in hand, my JJ comes up against AA and I drop down to 5000. Jacks are not coming through for me today.
   I raise with QJ and get one caller. The flop is Q 6 *, giving me top pair. I bet, he calls. The turn looks safe so I bet enough to put him all-in. He calls and shows 66 for trips. Now I'm back down to my starting stack of 3000, only now it only amounts to 20 big blinds.
   Getting nervous about my stack size, I call an all-in bet with AJ against 99. A classic coin flip situation. I win and my stack goes back upto 6000. Welcome to the roller-coaster.
   I get Q 4 on the button. As a few players are limping in I decide to call and see what the flop brings. The top card on the flop is a Queen. I realise this could be very good or very very bad. I end up calling big bets from another player all the way down to the river, even though I'm getting increasingly worried that he has a better Queen. It turns out he has QJ, a better Queen. This drops me down to 3000 chips, which is now worth 10 big blinds. A very bad call.
   With less than 10 big blinds I have two options pre-flop: go all-in or fold. I wait for a suitable all-in hand but nothing comes. When I'm down to 7BBs, I get Q 8s on the button. Even though one player has put in a minimum raise, I go all-in. I'm called by two players and get beaten by AJ. After one and a quarter hours of play I get knocked out, 77/208.
   I had my share of good luck and bad luck in this game, but in the end it was a couple of bad decisions that proved the difference. Hopefully I've learned something from this. Hopefully.