I Only Missed One Hand

I have said before that I almost never miss a hand when I play poker.  I never know in which hand I might win a big pot and get into the money, or even win the tournament.  Just the opposite happened a few minutes ago.

I was playing an online tournament with 711 players registered.  After about two hours we were down to 84 players and I was in 62nd place.  The top 10 places were paid.

I was low on chips but getting closer to the money. I was looking for a hand to shove so that I could win enough chips to make it to the final table because only the top ten players cashed.  When the hourly 5-minute break started I needed to have a bowel movement.

I got back just in time to see that I missed most of the hand and that my pocket queens had been folded.  That would have been the top 5% hand that I was hoping for. A few hands later I was knocked out of the tournament.

I have a few rules about poker:  Two of the most important are that I won't enter a tournament when I'm too tired to play well, and that I will never miss a hand.  I missed a hand today and I paid dearly for it.