Sky High & Sky Low

I took part in Sky Poker's Open tournament last night and - despite a good series of play - I failed to make it to a payout place.

There were six hundred players and in the early stages of the tournament I hit a pair of kings and knocked two men out.

That hand made me ascend to second place in the rankings. It was all down from there, though.

I made it to the first break and was still in with a chance of securing a return for my buy-in. The top seventy were to be paid and I was in the top to mid part of the payout structure.

It all fell apart at the ninety minute stage when I ended up in a showdown with the chip leader at my table.

I had a pair of jacks - he had kings. And that's all she wrote.

Still, I played well and the luck just ran out for me near the end.

I finished in one hundred and seventeenth place so I was a little under fifty positions short of making a profit. The good part of it is there were four hundred and eighty three players more worse-off than me.