Life in the bubble

Another moment in the Poker Diaries. As always, if this sort of thing doesn't appeal to you, please go look at the rest of the Internet.

The latest poker tournament in the home game happened on Friday night, and for the third straight event, I made the final table, but didn't cash. Just like in my fantasy and basketball keeper leagues, and I can't tell you how old this is getting.

The truly fabulous thing about poker is that playing well enough to get into position to make money, but not making money, will make you feel worse about your play than getting busted early. Early busts are easy; you just ran into a cooler hand, got caught in a bluff, or just weren't catching any cards. Sure, there's a small frission of shame about not being able to outlast anyone else, but on some level, that's actually kind of cool, since it shows that you aren't a nit.

I actually had the eventual champion all-in while holding a pocket pair, but he won the race with two overs for the saving play, and after catching cards for a few hours, I went fairly cold and kept catching the worst hand in poker - hands that hit, but not as hard as when they hit someone else. And sure, these things just work out in the long run, but in the long run, we're all dead. And not all that thrilled about that, or playing for four hours to make nothing.

Well, at least that appeals to the nit in me...