"I started looking and the bubble burst..."

Eight single table Sit-and-Go's tonight. Decent ITM of 37.5%, but a very disappointing three fourth-place (aka bubble burst) finshes. Had I manged to convert even one of those bubble finishes, I would have ITM'd at least 50%.

On the first bubble, with one limper I raise to 4x the blind (slightly more than half my stack) from the SB holding two beautiful aces. I only raised half my stack as I really wanted a caller, i hate to see aces just pull the blinds at this stage of the tournament. BB is the chipleader (10x my stack) and calls. Flop comes TJK all hearts. Sadly neither of my aces is the heart, although I look several times in desperation to make sure. I push (3/4th the pot) and he calls and turns over Jc9s. Surprising call, but he does have a ton of chips. I'm definitely ahead - he's only sitting on five outs - the three remaining nines for two pair, two remaining jacks for trips. Note that the four remaining queens will give him the sucker straight, which I'd beat with my ace-high straight. The World Poker Tour overlay graphic would be showing 80%-20% right now. The turn is a blank and now the rockets are a 90% favorite, but the river flows the nine of hearts and the chips slide across the table. Bubbled out in fourth.

On the second bubble, I am again shortstacked (3rd and 2nd have double my chips, the chipleader has 10x my stack). UTG limps, I push (10x the blinds) with JsQd. I'm called by the chipleader from the big blind holding pocket helmuths. Probably too agressive, but the coinflip scenario with two overcards versus his nines isn't the worst place to be sitting. Flop comes TT2 with two diamonds. Turn drops the offsuit king, so now I've got an OESD plus two overcards - except the bottom half of my straight would be a nine, thus handing my opponent a full house. So I'm really looking at 10 outs (4xA, 3xQ, 3xJ) for the river so I'm a 3.6-1 underdog. River drops another ten and I'm bubbled out for the second time tonight.

Finally, in the most interesting hand of the bubble finishes: I was in the big blind with 68c and T720 remaining in chips after posting. Small stack is on the button (UTG+1) with T562. UTG (chipleader with T3200 in chips) raises to 600. Small stack calls all-in for their last 562. Small blind (T2400) calls. So its 300 to me with 1462 in the pot. Pot odds look really attractive, even with the suited one-off connectors. I'll have T420 left if the flop whifs completely, since with the small stack being chased by two players odds are I'll finish ITM if I let them battle it out. And there's a shot i'll flop a monster and (say OESD or fourflush or two pair) and jump up enough to swing for 1st/2nd instead of just battling for 3rd. So I call...

Flop comes 9d6d8s. I've flopped two pair. Its checked to me, and I push my remaining 420 in the pot thinking I'm probably golden. In retrospect its a slightly marginal call with the diamonds out there, but even if I bust to one of the big stacks, as long as the small stack doesn't win the side pot I'll finish 3rd, since I started the hand with more chips than he did. Both big stacks call my bet, and the turn is the 2d dropping three diamonds on board.

Scare card for sure. First to act checks, chipleader fires 500 in to the 3600 pot. First to act check-raises all-in for another 1000 and the chipleader folds. So I get to see their hands now - small stack turns over 9Ts. Bigstack turns over AdTh. OK, not so bad at all. I've got the best hand currently, and need to dodge a diamond or a seven (13 outs) to win the main pot, or a ten or seven (seven outs for the small stack) to at least not lose the sidepot and guarantee a third place finish.

River drops the Ten of spades. Yeah. Sidepot gets chopped between the smallstack and the new chipleader. I'm bubbled out in fourth for the third time tonight. Hand history posted in the comments. Still, a solid night of SNG poker.