I was able to play several multi-table tourneys both last night and tonight. Last night I played five tourneys across three different sites and had some good success. I made the money and final table in two of them, finishing 6th (167 entrants) and 9th (118 entrants). In both cases, I got my chips in with the best hand but lost on the board.

I believe I was making very good decisions on both nights and only was knocked out of one tourney because of what I would view as a total mistake.

At any rate, tonight was a different story. Tonight I also played in five multi-table tourneys. In general these were all bigger tourneys, but again I was making overall good decisions. However, KK was my nemesis tonight -- and not in opponents' hands but in my own hands.

That hand knocked me out of 2 of the five tourneys tonight, plus a SNG on the bubble. In the first of these, we were down to 135 players from 684 entrants in $20 rebuy tourney on Hollywood Poker. A total of 70 players would make the money. I was sitting on about 7,000 chips with an average stack of about 12,000. However, the blinds were still only $300/$600 so I still had more than 10:1 to the big blind and was not uneasy yet. I look down to see two black Ks staring back. I am in mid-position and there is one limper in front of me so I decide to move all in, hoping frankly that I will get one caller.

In fact I do get one caller and I am happy to see QQ when they are turned up. I am even happier when the flop and fourth street are all blanks, but then a Q hits on the dreaded river and I am out.

The second situation was even worse. I was 4 off the money in a tourney of 308. I was cruising with an average chip stack. An large stack raised from early position but since he had been bullying for the past 1/2 hour, I did not put him on AAs. I raised all in with my KK and he called and showed TT. Once again I felt pretty good until a T spiked on fourth street. Another tourney bites the dust and I just miss the money.

Later my KK loses to 98o when a 9 and an 8 land on the board. This was in a SNG and ended my hopes on the dreaded bubble (4th place).

Not a good night for KK, but I will keep pulling the trigger with the cowboys. Can't get gunshy with my second most winning hand. Based on analysis of thousands of hand histories in Poker Tracker, I have won the most money with AA and the second most with KK.

Decisions over outcomes. Good decisions are the key to winning poker and while I did not come out on the winning side in these two tournaments, i was very pleased with my decision-making throughout. If my KKs would have held up in either case I would have catapulted to a better than average stack and I would have been in a good position to try to make the final table.

Source: Betting for Value