A Chip and a Chair

The purpose of me playing poker tonight was to figure out what the heck was going on with my game. I guess I should have winning on mind EVERY time I sit down at the poker table, right? But I don't. I especially didn't tonight. I have been playing really bad poker, I mean simply awful poker for the last week. I have tried to figure out what I had been doing wrong, but just couldn't. My husband told me play through it. I didn't want to. I was actually developing a fear of sitting down at the table, but since I have to play in this big tournament (buy-in already paid for, so there was no turning back) on Wednesday, I figured I had to do something. Three hands into the first game I push all-in with my A-Q of hearts after flopping two pair. Of course the donk at the table with pocket kings had to call me and caught his king on the river to complete his set. My husband would say that he wasn't a donkey because he ended up with my chips after all was said and done.
After being eliminated, I stood up and it seemed as if all eyes in the room were on me. About 5 people asked in disbelief if I was out "already". Translation- You idiot! You can't even last through the first round of blinds?!?
What a lovely feeling.....
So, in between games I sit and contemplate what I did, and continue to do wrong. I plop myself down in front of the man himself, Mr. Big Jim Slade. He is in disbelief as well. I am bewildered. Am I not as good as I thought I was? What was I doing so wrong? Without me telling him the gory details of my self-inflicted slaughter, he sums up where I have been going wrong: Overplaying my hands. That's it in a nutshell, he surmises. "Really? That's it? ", I say to myself. Then I stop and think, yes that is it. Something so simple, but we all have done it at one time or another. So much of this game is based on patience. Why did I feel the need to push all-in after the flop, when there were two cards left to come, there was no flush or straight draws to be had, and I was clearly ahead in the hand in the early stages of the tournament? With two cards left to come, anything could happen. I should have let the donk open the betting to see what he would do and then base my betting decisions on his actions. I could have probably gotten a better read on him that way and still have been left with some chips. All of these thoughts flood to my head as soon as Mr. Slade tells me the I overplayed my hand. Wow.
So with that revelation, I enter the second tournament of the night, determined to play the way I intend on playing Wednesday night. I played tight-aggressive and was careful not to overplay my cards in the beginning of the tournament. This tactic helped to keep my chip stack pretty even until I reached the end of the tournament. Right before the final table, I blinded out to my last 2 chips (2,000). I went all in with K9. I had no choice. I ended up winning the hand and built my stack up to 6,000 chips.
By the time we reached the final table, my friend Shirley was down to her last 2000 chips. She is fighting to break into the top 16 points list of our league. She got down on herself and I said to her, "A chip and a chair, my dear". We both finished first and second for the night.