Cap'n Mal

Know the feeling too well. Last night, final table, 5 left, I'm 2nd in chips. Get JJ, make standard raise, small stack pushes (we were all close in chips), I call. JJ vs. 55. Flop comes down 8 9 T rainbow ... turn 5, river blank. Two hands later, now the short stack, call a small raise with 8Ts, board comes 4 5 8 rainbow. I push, same guy calls /w KTo. Turn K, river blank ... from 2nd to out in 3 hands.

Twice in the last week I've made it late in big MTT tournaments. Both times I made the money, but I've found a definite weakness in my game that I was curious how to address.To give specifics, last night it was the final 2 tables, with only the final table paying. I was in 2nd chip position /w about 3x the average stack. The chip leader and most of the small stacks were at the other table. Most of the stacks at my table were about average or a little over.I found myself having a run of lousy cards that were easily foldable, but I was basically just losing blinds. This let pretty much everyone

I'm a rules stickler, and while I hate the phrasing, I'd have to say player #2 didn't make a binding bet. The reasoning is this. What if there was a 3rd player in the hand still waiting to act who had a different amount of chips than player 1? What does the verbal statement "I think I'm going to have to put you all in" mean to player 3? Since there's no way to make the determination there, there's really no way when there's only 2 players either.I'd say the fold stands, and then lecture. The "put you all in" part is worse than the "I think" in my opinion.

This one's from the other night. It's a bar-tourney league, but we're up to the finals for the season. About 12 players left (out of 100 to start), the final table of 8 gets prizes, with the top 3 getting decent stuff.Tight agressive, but short stacked player raises all in from early position.A lady who has unbelievable luck at catching cards, but is otherwise a weak player is in the BB. The call is for about 3/4 of her chips, and she's not particularly committed to the hand thus far. She thinks for about 2 minutes and then says "On TV, they call with this." And ultimately decides to call. In

Agreed about Maui. My (new) wife and I went there for our honeymoon in July and it's a fantastic place. The suggestions listed are great, but also try to take time to relax as there's a ton of things to do.Also highly recommend Warren and Annabelle's magic show in Lahaina and if you have the time, the trip to Hana is gorgeous.Daniel feel free to PM for more suggestions :-)