This sad story takes place in a fairly small home game, something around 13 players. We are down to the final four players; top three cash. I had made a monster comeback, coming from short-stacked and desperate in 8th place to eliminating three players and taking the chip lead.



Each player started off with 5000 chips, with 1000 chip add-ons before the first break, so at this point with four players left, the average stack was around 17500. I had about 30k in chips and the rest of the table sat at around 12k and one short stack at 4k, who sat directly to my left. When the blinds increased to 500/1000, the short-stacked player decided to become hyper-aggressive and come over the top of every bet no matter what. He took down a lot of pots and wittled down the larger stacks after an uneventful double-up. I was doing my best to be patient but after a few hands I was down to about 24k and my initially short stacked friend was up to 18k.
In the small blind, I picked up QQ. The two players in front of me called the big blind, so I raised it up to 4 times the big blind. Just as I had hoped, Mr. Hyper-Aggressive came over the top, all in. The other two players around to me, and after short deliberation, I called the all in. I was hoping that he couldn't have KK or AA - could there be any less justice? But, alas, I was right, for my for held 23 offsuit. Already celebrating my victory, the flop falls A 5 8 rainbow. A crowd of eliminated players began to leave the couch to gather around the table to witness the outcome. They all began to chant, "FOUR! FOUR! FOUR!", almost as if it will magically bring a 4. The turn... draws a blank.

I feel like a huge weight had been lifted off my chest but I knew it wasn't over. Then, almost as quickly as the feeling left me, it came back - the river caught a 4. I flipped over my chair and left the room, and came back to see that the outcome had not changed. My run to the top was crushed by a foolish move and a lucky break. When the blinds came back around, I picked up J 4 in the big blind. Hyper-Aggressive limped under the gun and the rest of the table folded. The flop showed J 4 9, rainbow (with one diamond). I moved all in for my last 4k and was called by J 7 of diamonds. The river showed Ace of diamonds, and the river a 2 of, need I say it, diamonds. It's not missing the money that was so lousy; it was the terrible way that it happened