In the last two days, i’ve pulled 3 third place finishes, busting out on stupid hands but still getting ITM, one of which really surprised me… I was down to 460 chips, with everyone (four others) all over $2,000. They were all trying to grind me out, but one of them caught big cards, went all in. The others thought he was bluffing and called him, ending up with two all ins and the chip leader calling, both lost to him and I caught third… purely by default. Lesson there is never give up.
I also caught a first last night… played good, got down to ITM and then tightened a bit as the chip leader was way ahead around 7000 chips, to my 2500 or so. The other player was in there with their 3500 or so, and they both started grinding on me… I waited them out for good cards, doubled up to get back to around 3500, then watched closely what they were betting, the short stack kept coming with good but not great cards, hoping to catch the loose big stack… instead he caught me coming over the top on him with big cards, knocking him out.
The big stack and I then battled for quite a while, until he was up to around double my stack… I caught some big cards (I think they were Ks) and shoved over on his 4xBB raise (which he was doing standard, stealing all the blinds he could). He thought I was sick of him stealing (IMO) and he shoved over.. and after that repeating twice more, he had 15 chips.
Moral of the story for today dear readers (thank you mrrickett for the comments) is…. Never Give Up… Never give in till the pop up says you have been eliminated.