Good, Bad, Ugly

   Live Tournament. In early position I have K Q. As the table is pretty passive I decide to limp and see what the flop brings. In late position, player R raises. If it was anyone else I would fold but R is a notoriously aggressive player. She could have anything. So I call. I flop a full house: K Q Q. I check and R immediately puts in a big bet. Trying to look reluctant, I call. I check the turn, hoping that R will continue to bet. When she does I put in my best Oscar winning performance and then call. I have no interest in what comes on the river. I'm just wondering whether she will bet again if I check. Rather than take the risk of it being checked back, I put in a minimum bet. I figure she must be getting suspicious by now. She instantly calls and shows Q x. After seeing my monster hand she says she thought I might have A K. As she had trips I guess I could have bet a lot more on the river. After this the other players enter into an analysis of the size of my river bet. Everyone's an expert after the fact.

   Live Tournament. At a very passive table I limp in with K Q again (no, I don't usually make a habit of this but when the play is so passive, it's hard to resist). The flop is K x x. Player T checks, as do I.  Player G bets and we both call. The turn is an Ace. Now T, who is usually more passive than a jellyfish, puts up a decent-sized bet. I figure if he's betting, he must have the Ace, so I fold. G calls. After the river T shows down K Q and G has K 4! I guess T is not as predictable as I thought.

   Online SitnGo. With A K suited, I put in a standard 3x raise and get 3 callers. The flop is A A 7. I check my trips, not wishing to scare anyone off, and they all do likewise. The turn is another 7, giving me a full house. I check again, hoping that one of the others hits a decent hand on the river so I can extract some chips from them. I get my wish. The river is an Ace, putting a full house on the board and giving me quads. Player 1 bets half the pot. He's obviously trying to steal the pot by representing the other Ace. This is a dream result for me. The other two players both now fold, which is quite surprising. I re-raise and p1, who obviously thinks I'm trying to re-steal, calls with 8 9s. The only way this could have worked out better would have been if his bluff had been an all-in push.

   Online ring game (10c/20c). I'm in the big blind with 4 2. There is one limper in the pot. The flop is 3 5 7. I bet at it, assuming that the other player also missed a flop like that. They call. The turn is a King. I decide that this might be a scare card for my opposition, so I bet about 3/4 pot and get called again. With bets being called twice, you'd think I'd get the message by now, but when a 2 comes on the river I decide to bet at it again. After all, in the big blind, I could have anything: 2 2, K 5, 4 6. So I bet about half the pot and get re-raised. So I do what I should have done two betting rounds ago; fold.

   Online ring game (10c/20c). With A J in the BB there are several limpers and I just check it. I don't want to be raising with this hand from such a poor position and am looking for a pretty flop. The flop is about as pretty as it can get; T Q K, giving me the nuts. I figure it's time to go fishing and check. One player puts in a small bet and I call. The turn is an Ace, which is not great for me; anyone with a Jack now also has an Ace high straight and anyone without a Jack is going to be pretty wary of a bet. Player 1 checks, p2 bets $1.60 and I immediately re-raise them. To my surprise I get two callers.  The river is a 7, and now there are 3 hearts on the board. P1 checks, p2 bets and, wary of a possible flush, I just call. P1 then check-raises to $25. Even though I know I have the best possible hand short of a flush, I just can't bring myself to call such a huge bet. Getting drawn out on when the river hits is pretty routine for me, so I reluctantly fold. P2 calls and shows 2 pair. P1 has J 2 for an Ace high straight. A very bad fold. I guess I should have raised pre-flop after all. Coulda, woulda, shoulda.

   Online ring game (10c/20c). With J 9 in the BB I call a minimum raise from one other player. The flop is 5 8 J. With top pair I put in a bet of 3/4 pot and get called. The 9 on the turn gives me top 2 pair, so I bet again. My opponent now puts in a big re-raise. This player had just recently suffered a bad beat from a worse hand and now had a short stack. I figure he's on tilt so I push hard. He calls me all-in and shows 6 7; he has a straight. Oops. The river is another 9, giving me a full house. I collect a very healthy-sized pot and the other player has another bad beat tale to tell.

   Online SitnGo. Early in the tournament I have A Q in the small blind. One player raises x3 and I call. I miss the flop completely; 3 4 8. Noting that the other player is short-stacked, I decide to take a stab at it and push all-in. I figure it will be very hard for him to call without something really good. He calls with K J. He hits nothing and, just to cap it off, I hit an Ace on the river. I love it when a plan comes together.

   Live tournament. Mid-way through the tournament, with the blinds at 1200 (they started at 200), I look down at A 2. I limp in and so does player B. The flop is A K 2.  I check it and B bets 2400. So I re-raise to 4800 with my 2 pair and get called. The turn is a 9. I figure B must have an Ace, so as long as it's not A K or A 9 I should be OK. I bet 4800 again and he calls. The river is a 2, giving me a full house. Trying to disguise the strength of my hand, I bet the same amount again. B has a good long think about this, staring at me and muttering about what I might have, but eventually he calls. I declare that I have a full house and throw my cards down. To my horror I see that I have A 3, not A 2. Oh no! Then, to my amazement, B turns over K 5. I still win with my baby Ace. I can't believe that B would keep calling those bets with second pair. I also can't believe that I mis-read my hand. It could have been a disaster. In fact, it should have been.

   Live tournament. 2 1/2 hours into the tournament and I'm short-stacked. At this stage I'm just looking for a good hand to go all-in with. I push all-in with about 13 BBs left with pocket sixes. I get called by an even shorter stack with T 6. So my opponent has only 3 outs. They hit one of those tens and I'm left with only a handful of chips. A few hands later I go all-in again with 9 9. I get called by A 5 (only one over-card again).  There's an Ace in the window (first card exposed on the flop) and I lose again. My last desperate move with just 5 BBs left and I push again with pocket fours. This time my opponent has 6 outs with K 9. There's a 9 on the flop, then another on the turn and that's it. So my pocket pairs lose three times in a row within 30 minutes. Oh well. That's poker.