Finding Pocket Aces

My WSOP dreams were crushed yesterday. First off, it was Father's Day, and my kids were visiting. Not a good scenario for uninterrupted concentrated play. I got off to a slow start and lost 20% of my chips to a big stack with top pair, good kicker (KJ with king high flop) when he flopped two pair playing a suited 10/3. My next hit came from an ill timed bluff on the cutoff with 5/2 suited. The button stayed with me on a 2 barrel bluff (raise preflop, bet on flop and turn). I gave it up on the river as only an all-in would possibly have won. My last hand came when I was down to about 2500 in chips with 100/200 blinds and I pushed with A/8 suited in clubs. The massive big stack came over the top and another player called. I considered folding, but with the other caller went for pot odds, realizing that I needed to chip up fast to have any chance at this point. The big stack found pocket aces with the ace of diamonds. Running diamonds with two on the flop found me drawing dead, and he eventually made the flush as well.

Later, playing in another tournament I also ran into a big stack with pocket aces. Go figure. My other two tournaments were unusual in that I ran into bad luck with the same player in different tournaments. Jimtrout is a very good player, and as it turns out very lucky against me. In the first tournament, I was cruising along with a good chip count, but he had me slightly covered. Playing pocket 8's I flopped a set with a 10,8, 5 flop. I bet, he raised, we go all-in. He is playing j/9 for the open ended straight draw and he hits a queen on the river to knock me out. Later, in another tournament basically the same thing happened, I went all-in with a made hand and he caught runners for another straight. Sometimes one player just is super lucky against me. The second tournament where he knocked me out I did cash for 4th, but it was my only cash of the day.