I guess I should have been satisfied with all those second place finishes. Seeing as how I was running well, I played in a couple of tournaments with decent prizes at Poker.com -- the Summer Championship $25,000 event and the regular Sunday $20,000 Guaranteed event. The Sunday tournament is usually a good one in that the shortfall amount is sometimes staggering.

Sadly, there are no good stories or results of which to speak. A crucial hand determined where I would be regarding the bubble in the Summer Championship. There was a raise ahead of me, and I went all in with A-K suited. The raiser called me and showed pocket 3s. The board was all blanks and I was out. If I had caught an Ace or a King, I would probably have made the money and had a chance to go deeper. Such is life.

I ran into the wall in other tournaments on Sunday -- a buy in and a freeroll on Full Tilt and a Shark vet series game at Poker.com. Not a great day.

On Monday, I hoped to repeat a run to the final table at Mondays at the Hoy. I got great cards early on and chipped up, then hit a long spot of win a few, lose a few. I finally went out when I flopped a set of 6s. The flop also showed two diamonds. I put out a rather weak raise to entice RecessRampage to call. He re-raised me and I went all in. He was on a flush draw and had the chips to gamble. I was a 73.5% favorite. Unfortunately, a diamond came on the turn, and the river failed to pair the board, sending me to the rail. If I had won the hand, I would have gotten back in the game with a decent stack. Recess, who played a tremendous game, finished second. Dat's poker, I guess. Sometimes the poker gods pour you a beer. Sometimes they just piss in it.