Fri night think i'm going to puke

Man what a sick night. I'm playing my A game. I mean I'm getting a couple hands but I'm playing great. Had a weird hand in lvl 2. I've been a lil looser than usual but haven't been to showdown yet and haven't been that out of line. Raise KK UTG and get 3 bet. I milk it a while and look him over and I 4 bet 1/2 my stack with the intention of shoving any flop that doesn't have an Ace. If an Ace falls I can't get away from my hand but I'll check and maybe he'll bluff if he doesn't have an Ace thinking I'll fold. Flop is horrible QJx 2 diamonds. I stall a minute cause I hate this flop. His flat call really made me think AK, QQ, JJ. And now I only beat 2 of those hands so I should have check/called I think but I go ahead and shove cause I don't think he's folding AQ or KQ to me here. He insta folded so I'm guessing he had AK.

A couple orbits later I raise TT UTG+2 and the BB calls. Flop T54 and he checks. I look him over and announce check. Turn is a 4 giving me the boat but putting a flush draw on board. He checks and I bet out the same as flop bet and he insta calls me. River is a 5 double pairing the board and making the flush. He thinks a minute and checks. I just sit there shaking my head and shuffling chips. I just didn't know what he could have that could pay me off. If I thought he had a 5 or 4 I'd make a large bet but I'm sure he doesn't have either. But I think he might pay me off with a flush if I make it a smallish bet. So I finally throw out some chips about 1/2 pot I think but I did it looking angry and hoping maybe he'd think I was really weak and he did. He calls QTo. End of level 3 I have about 14,000 and we started with 4,000.

Just after break my table breaks and I'm moved to a table thats not going to break until the end of the tournament. Now I've been at least 2x average since we started level 2. Right where I wanted to be. I stayed there most of the night. On my new table I played the most bizarre hand ever. I'm in seat 1 to the left of the dealer which I hate because they keep the muck right there and its hard to follow action from seats 8-10. The hand here is against the player in the 10 seat who obv can't see my actions any better than his. I raise QQ UTG and get 2 calls. Flop is 998 (2 spades) I have about 8,000 left and the pot is 6,000. Any raise I make commits me to the hand. I bet out 5,500 and caller 1 thinks a while and mucks but player 2 insta calls me. Turn bricks off. Caller 2 is in the BB and IDK what he's thinking. Maybe he thought I was all in on the flop. He flips over his hand Ks5s. I can't help but smile as the entire table is bursting out in laughter. The dealer tells him the hand isn't over I have chips. The kid apologized and flips his cards back over and announces he checks. Now the pot is close to 20,000 chips and I have about 2,500 left. In no way can I push him off a flush draw. He's getting almost 10:1 to call. He probably has to call with almost any pair here. I sit there a minute and announce I'm all in. Now he goes into the tank and everyone just gets silent. B/c we know his hand, we know he has to call but somehow he doesn't. Moron at the table starts to announce He's only got $2,500. Luckily I had a great dealer and he instantly interupts the player and tells him he's not in the hand, he's not allowed to comment on the hand. So he gets quiet and the kids throws his hand away. Now I'm a favorite there but he still had a 1 in 4 chance of snapping me off there. I really felt when he folded and I was now about 3x the average that I was in great shape.

Fast forward to next break. We started the tournament with 320 players. We're playing for 15 seats and at break I'm 2x the average stack and we've got less than 80 players remaining. Blinds go up when we return but I've got about 25BBs in my stack. I watch a couple big stacks implode. Biggest stack at the table raises AK UTG and the btn min 3 bets him. Everyone knows this guy has AA except the UTG player who shoves his AKo and gets crippled. He easily could have gotten away from his AK as he was CL at the table and this was the only guy who could hurt him so the guy had to have a major hand to get in v/s the chip leader. Next orbit another big stack raises UTG with ATo and the tightest player at the table shoves. This guy hadn't played a hand in an hour he had been at the table. Of course AT calls and gets crippled. Now we're down to about 65 players. I raise AJs UTG and get shoved by the BB. I throw my hand away not needing to gamble and he shows me AK. Good fold me. Next orbit I raise AJ again in MP and the guy with AA in the last hand 3 bets me. I fold again and he shows me AA. Good fold me again. I think I raised AJ in LP a 3rd time and folded to a shove and was shown AA. So now all my good folds have costs me about 1/3 of my stack. My raises were fine as no one was playing back at me without a huge hand and all 3 times a nit showed me a hand.

Now the blinds go up in my BB and there are 50 players remaining. With the blind increase I'm about average but I only have 11BBs. Folds to the SB who shoves me with 8BBs. Now if he has any clue what he's doing he should be shoving me with any 2 cards here. I would shove there blind had the situation been reversed. Anyway I call with you guessed it AJ. He had AQ. GG me. I'm literally sick right now. I've come closer to a seat than this before but this really hurt. Last year I came in 3rd place on back to back days for a WSOP seat and the 2nd day was AA < QQ for 80% of the chips in play. But to play for 4+ hours tonight and probably playing the best live poker I've ever played to just get cooler late is a kick in the nuts.

I've got a couple more tournaments tomorrow to try to get into the last day of the event. There is a nice view from my balcony and it has a 100 foot drop. I'm standing out here right now debating the jump off of it.....