The LAST Bad Beat. (I promise).

I detest bad beat stories.

So much so, that I wish there weren't any in this here blog at all - though sadly, if I look back, there are more than a few too many.

Nobody wants to hear how I got coolered, no one wants to read how I did everything right and was punished for it. We've all been there and then some.

So much so that the word "standard" has become a catch-all phrase meaning - "Your hand and situation are NOT unique. Your impossibly horrific one outer on the river has happened millions of times to millions of players before and will continue happening for a millennia to come. You are nothing special. Please go away."

That said - I do believe that everyone is entitled to one poker sob story in their lifetime. I'm going to tell mine, but I promise that from here on out, you won't here any more.

If I could tell only one epically tragic tale of my poker career in micro-stakes, this would be it.

Yesterday I played in the Daily Dollar Rebuy. 8000 entries, a prize pool of over 10K. First place approached 4K.

I have gone "deep" in this one before, cashing for a few dollars in the top 200 and top 100 on more than several occasions.

Yesterday, I went super deep - busting out in 48th place for $26. But I could have done so much more.

I had a big healthy stack of nearly 150 BB in the cutoff. UTG+1 lead out for a standard slightly less than x3 BB. My rudimentary HUD (Head's Up Display) told me that he had voluntarily put money into the pot on nearly 60% of over 100 hands. At this table and in this tournament, he was a maniac who had often got it in way behind, but had sucked out enough to have a healthy stack.

I had kings. I shoved. He insta-called with pocket 7's. He barely had me covered. I was ecstatic at this chance to double up to a prohibitive chip lead over most of the field.

The flop came out harmless rags, with two clubs. I had a club, he had none. The turn was another club.

Understand; now he was down to a single out - the seven of diamonds. A seven of clubs would give me a higher flush.

No need to finish this story.

It really sucked, because, as I said, I would be a monster chip leader, in the top five of 48 players remaining. And have enough chips, to basically cruise to the final table, where the bottom spots started at $100 and jumped dramatically every few spots - culminating in four 1K+ payouts!

I had a real shot at real money - and I was one-outered. Sucks.

But it is what it is, simply results.

Before the final card hit, he had less than a 2% chance.

The chat box lit up with sympathy for me after the brutal one-outer. I have, for a long time now, become a mute in the chat box, but it was nice to see the kind words.

So what did I do? Ponied up another buck and registered for the already running Daily Dollar Freeze Out.

I cashed in this one too - but only for $2.50. It still felt good.