"Not like this."

You may recall a scene in The Matrix where one of the minor characters, Switch, realizes that one of the evil guys is pulling the plug on her body in the real world, and that she's about to slump over dead in the Matrix. A look of dread comes over her and she pleads, "Not like this. Not like this." Then just like that, she dies. An awful way to die, no doubt.

This is what I say to myself when I flop top set or the nut straight in a tournament, get reraised by the big blind, and as we both go all-in I discover that he flopped a four-flush. I've been on both sides of this situation, and no matter what, when the flush completes I feel icky. It's a gruesome way to die.

Not that it stops me from trying to kill people this way. In tonight's Mookie, we were three-handed and I'd just doubled up with KK against TripJax's top pair, good kicker. Now 23skidoo was the short stack, and when he reraised me with his A2o and I called, I'm sure he thought he was dead. But no, I'd called with JT spades; barring a suckout, he was OK.

Then came the flop: no pairs, but two spades. Thinks skidoo: "Not this way." Turn club, no pair. River diamond, no pair. Ace-high holds up against Jack-high, and I'm back to third place. No Matrix moves today.

It was over soon after that, when my AQs caught nothing but TripJax's K7o paired the board. My third cash in the Mookie and best showing to date.

Congrats to Trip for winning and skidoo for second place!