Stop me if you've heard this one before

8:29 I'm seated at the table with the following players, starting at the dealer button: Rookette22, yestbay1, me, Mourn, sparkyedge, BobRespert, lakaris. I think Rookette22 made the money last week and ask her; she confirms. Damn. Experience She raises to 4xBB on the first hand, easily scaring my 58o off the big blind.

8:33 My first pot of the game comes when my AK catches nothing in the community (Td-3c-2c-6d-Tc), but apparently sparkyedge caught nothing either as my 3xBB raise on the river makes him lose interest in the hand. Woohoo: T1540 in chips. It's hammer time!

8:37 I realize that 23skidoo joined our table at some point when he bets 80 preflop and gets called by Rookette22. His bet of 250 on the turn does not get called, and he shows AQ to reveal that he flopped a pair o' queens. Nice.

8:40 Villainiss, the second-place finisher last week, is first out of the tourney this week. I hope a hammer took her out

8:44 UTG, I get the SOOTED HAMMER -- but yestbay bets 5xBB, and I'm not that dumb. Yet. I get a beer at the break.

9:08 A thriller, after a few circuits of preflop bets of 4xBB resulting in folds all the way around. rmgustaf bets 3xBB, 23skidoo in the BB calls, and the flop is K9T. 23skidoo bets 100, rmgustaf reraises to 300, and 23skidoo calls.

9:20 Lost half of my stack when my EP bet of 400 (with AJ) was called by mowenumdown and raised to 700 by lazaris... I called, mowenumdown called, and the flop came down with no goodness for me. mowenmdown bet my remaining stack, so I folded, and he flipped over pocket queens. lazaris exited the game and I live on with 715. Sigh.

9:25 Blinds have taken me down to 565.

9:28 I pick up AK in the BB; yestbay1 limps in and I raise him all-in. He folds. Ah well, it's probably best. At the break, I have T615--not exactly a king's ransom.

9:30 Break standings:

1. BrainMC: 6523
2. sparkyedge: 5175
3. dsheep: 5070
4. mowenumdown: 4465
5. ig-2323: 4220
6. randomjustin: 4205
7. RandomSam: 4075
8. OrangeFloyd: 3835
9. cfinn: 3620
10. Columbo777: 3575
11. resetdave: 3432
12. Mourn: 3395

9:36 Despite my predictions, I do not go out on the first post-break hand. Not enough beer yet. Instead, cfinn doubles up when his pocket 3's flop a set against Ingoal's mucked hand.

9:42 Wondering where Wil is, I ponder "Maybe he's still on the casting couch". That gets a few chuckles from the crowd...

9:44 Down to 390 in chips, I call the all-in with pocket tens against jg-2323's preflop bet of 450. Sadly, his KJo catches a K on the flop and I don't pick up another ten. I'm gone in 39th place. Is it the beer? Or the luck (bad)? Or just playing overly tight (like, just a few hands before I had the hammer in the BB and elected not to push in against yestbay1's raise in the small blind--that's gotta be bad karma)? I dunno, but like I said at the top of the post, it's been a b-a-d month.

Mind you, I've certainly enjoyed the WWdN tourneys. I just wouldn't mind, you know, picking up a few bucks here or there again. Oh the glory of filthy lucre!