Can't keep quiet

I took third in the Sierra Poker Classic ME, and I'm pretty happy with how I played with the exception of this hand: with still 9 left, shortly after resuming, I had about 80k in chips and was sitting two to the left of a solid $5/$10 player named Eric from Sacramento, who had the chiplead, but wasn't tremendously far out in front of me. The day prior, I had 3bet him once when he raised in LP and I was OTB, and that pot I took down without seeing a flop. Now, I looked down at 99 OTB and Eric raised from HJ to about 2.5x. I 2.5x'd his raise and he flatted. The flop came 662 with two clubs, he checked, I bet a little over half pot and he 2.5x'd that bet. It was a pretty clear shove or fold spot, which I hated because I was pretty certain that if I pushed he folded all worse hands and called with all better, but if I just called, I give him a chance to catch up and didn't feel like I had such a lock hand that I could risk another card rolling off. I decided that with the slow structure and relatively deep stacks that I could find better spots to pick up small pots and run over my opponents, rather than risk it all in this obviously marginal spot. I mucked and of course Eric turned over the QThh. What I really hate about this hand is that I always mock live players for not having a plan or ever expecting the obvious and knowing how to react, and I simply didn't have a plan once I bet. Anyways, I hung around for a while, we got down to 3 handed and I got all in with AK vs. A9 and lost when a 9 came on the turn. Still a nice showing for only my 2nd big buyin tourney.

I'm in Vegas now. Yesterday I played a $1060 at Caesars WSOP-C and did well until I lost with 99 to A6o AIPF. I had some good hands, one where I got all in with a Q hi flush draw and was elated to see my opponent turn over a 9 hi flush draw, another where I defended my blind with Q8hh vs. an UTG raise, something I wouldn't normally do, but my opponent seemed especially weak and I thought would pay me off with a lot of weaker hands. I flopped a flush and got 2 good streets of value from him before I got a little greedy on the river, thinking he was calling anything and betting a little too much.

Today I went to Venetian to play a $500 DS event, which I didn't realize was a 2 day event and I had never been so happy to get coolered with 30bbs at 8/1600 with QQ vs. KK because A) had I gone deep I would have been forced to miss my friend's graudation party in LA, and B) because I had decided to buy into a Nevada SPCA charity event hosted by Jen Harman. I was multitabling for a little which was incredibly distracting and stupid and something I need to not do anymore, but finally I busted the DS event and could focus on the Charity tourney, and wouldn't you know it I settled for nothing less than 1st place! I obviously ran super hot, but I don't think I made a single mistake when we got down to it. I had the pleasure of playing with Negranu and Jeff Madsen among others, and not only did I win a seat to the WSOP ME, I got a really nice Curtis & Co. watch, an astonishing trophy and some other really neat prizes.

Tomorrow I'm off to LA, but I'll be back for more come Monday.