I taketh... then giveth... then taketh!!!

Last night, there were couple of interesting hands that happened over a span of 30 minutes when I was playing online. First hand came up when there were couple of new players at the table. They all had to post $2 to play so even before the cards were dealt, there was a pot of $11 at this 1-2NL table. I am in early position but I find pocket 7s and I raise to see if I can take down the pot right then and there. So, I raise to $11, a guy from mid position calls, and both blinds call. So, we go to the flop with $50+ in the pot with 4 players. Flop comes K-7-7. Very nice!! And surely, someone's gotta have a king with 4 players coming in on a raise. So, as I'm trying to contemplate the best way to make money, SB bets $2, BB raises it to $26. Wow, I haven't done anything aside from flopping quads and someone's already doing the betting for me. So, I call. The guy behind me folds and the SB calls. Turn is a 10. SB checks, BB bets $82 (leaving him with $72 behind), I call, hoping for a call from SB also but SB folds. River is an ace and BB goes all in with his AK, I insta-call and take down a $429 pot!!!

Very next hand. I get dealt pocket aces!!! I think to myself, holy crap, I'm on fire! So I call from UTG to see if I can be a little tricky or if there's a raise after me with a few callers, I'd reraise to thin the field. Instead, everyone folds to the button who raises to $10 and both blinds fold so I just elect to call. Flop comes Q-Q-3 with two spades. Unreal. That's as good a flop as I could hope for. So I check to see what he does, just in case he has a Q. Well, he makes a pot sized bet of $22 so I pop him back to $44. Then he reraises all in for another $140. That's when the sirens started going off. For a second, I wondered if he had a Q. But then I thought there's no way he would bet out a pot amount when there's only one other guy in the hand. And if I raise and he has a Q, wouldn't he just call to build the pot? I mean why push here? So, I thought he either has AK of spades or KK, JJ, TT or maybe a pair that's less. Doubtful but possible. So I call, relatively quickly... Just to find out he made that play with AQ. Ouch.

4 hands later... I get dealt pocket 10s so I raise from the cutoff to $7 and the BB calls for $5 more. Flop comes 9-6-6 with two diamonds. Pretty good flop except for the diamonds for me. The BB then bets out $15. Typical move where if the flop looks bad for the raiser, BB bets out to try to steal. Except since I have a pocket pair (and he might too), I raised it to $45. Oh, and btw, he's my nemesis that I lost the AA vs AQ hand above. He calls the extra $30. Turn is a Q. He checks, I thought about betting but I decided to check also, just to see what happens on the river. River comes another Q and he bets the pot amount which is $105. So, I have to call $105 into a pot that contains $210. I think the hand through and either he's trying to steal the busted diamond draw or he has a hand like A9 which justifies his calling my raise from BB. But I figured he's had to get pretty lucky in order to have a Q or a 6. I also considered a pocket pair lower than mine because of the way he played it. So, after all that, I decided to call. He shows Q-2 of diamonds and so he caught one of his many outs on the turn.

So, after 6 hands, I went from being up $220 to down $50. Fortunately, I've been playing well at the 1-2NL tables so I ended the session being up $113. Crazy six hand stretch though.

And then at the same time, I was playing a 2-4NL and saw something I don't see everyday. I raise from middle position with 9-10 of clubs. I was playing fairly tight so I thought it was a good time to mix it up. Guy behind me calls my $14 raise, as does the BB. So, the pot is close to $50 and the flop comes A-J-J with two clubs. BB checks, and I bet my flush draw for $35. The guy behind me calls (uh oh) and the BB folds. So, now, I just bet into a pot, built it up, and I don't even have a nut flush draw or an ace. But, all that negative thought was eased by the turn when it came 8 of clubs, completing my flush and also giving me a straight flush draw. So, I check, to make it look like I hate that club. And, just like I hoped, the guy behind me bet $90. So, I bumped it up to $180. Then I got worried when he insta-called my $90. But he's only got like $68 behind him so I'm worried that he has a boat. When the 10 of spades hit the river, I figured, what choice do I have so I pushed for the rest of his $70 and he called instantly. And I won... with my flush... Yeah, I know, nothing unusual right??? Until I looked at the hand history and the guy had K-10... of hearts???? I was very confused. K-10 of hearts!? Flop was A-J-J. Initial raiser (yours truly) bet out on a dangerous looking flop. How do you make that call??? Granted, if an offsuit Q hits, he would have doubled up... but if I had a flush draw (which I did), he had 3 outs. On the turn, he was drawing dead!!! Bet $90 then call a raise!? WOW. WOW. I've seen some donkey moves online but not this kind of a donk move at this level. Oh well. Thanks for the $600 pot.

Geez, remind me again why I even bother playing tournaments...