AK Suited Falls to AK Suited

I was doing fan freakin' tastic in the Bodonkey tonight. I was very pleased with my play, my cards, and my reads. I was having my way with fellow ATL blogger Kurokitty. He was on my right and whenever he raised, I either reraised or called and bet the flop with what I was sure was the better hand. I never had terrific cards, but I was able to use what I had effectively. It was even more effective when he got in to shorty range and I was willing to go to war with my pocket pairs. I know if anyone can appreciate selective aggression, it's the Kitty.

As we neared the second break I was still in good shape. With blinds of 150/300, I pick up AK of diamonds and raise to 900. MiamiDon pushed from the big blind with almost the same number of chips than me (4500 -5000ish). I had been raising his blind quite often throughout the night and I hoping he was just getting tired of it and pushed back at me. I called and he has AK of hearts, so I'm not going to lose 92% of the time. Welcome to the wonderful world of 8% as 3 more hearts come on the board. This cripples me and I go all in on the next hand with pocket 7s and get beat by pocket 8s. I went out in 27th out of 44. While on paper, that doesn't make for a good showing, I think I was playing some of the best poker I have ever done. Some of those that were watching may snicker at that statement and I may be deluding myself. Other than the disappointment of getting knocked out on a statistically low beat, I felt great about this game. It was a big step in a change that could be occurring in my game.