My Craziest Hand Ever?

As a no limit poker player, there are a few situations that really scare me, and that I prepare myself to handle every time I sit down at a table. One of them is hitting top pair with a good kicker or an overpair while someone else flops a set. I think about this a lot because I derive a large portion of my poker winnings from people who refuse to lay down their top pair when I have three of a kind. There's just no way to avoid losing a bunch of money in this scenario, as you must be aggressive with your top pairs to protect them from the draws that are inevitably out against you. The key is finding the proper balance between aggression and a willingness to fold when your opponent's betting indicates that you are beaten. Typical example: you're in late position with AA and a guy raises in front of you from $1 to $5. You reraise to $15 and he calls. The flop is a 9 2 6 rainbow and the guy checks. The pot is $30 and you make a $30 bet. The guy now check raises all in for another $100. You are almost certainly beaten (by 99, most likely). A check raise generally shows a strong hand, and your opponent knows you have a big pair or maybe AKs at a minimum based on the preflop action. If I could go back in time and fold ever time this happened to me, I would be a much richer man. Alas, I had to learn the hard way.

Another scary situation is holding KK when up against AA. That might seem rare, but in my short poker career it has come up many times, and I have made a lot of money with AA vs. KK. Lately I've been folding KK preflop under certain circumstances. For example, lets say someone raises from $1 to $5 from early position. Of course I then raise to $10 or $15 with KK. With QQ or less, few people would come back over the top of me unless they were on a very short stack. So when I get reraised another $50 by a guy who is deep in money, I muck my KK.

Below is a situation where I was quite sure I was beaten preflop, but I called the last raise anyway because my implied odds were fanstastic - if I flopped top set with my QQ I could easily double up. See below for the conclusion to this absurd hand.



***** Hand History for Game 2279792448 *****
0/0 TexasHTGameTable (NL) - Tue Jun 28 23:16:57 EDT 2005
Table Table 36575 (Real Money) -- Seat 8 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: MadRedBull ( $82.65)
Seat 2: karen2002 ( $91.4)
Seat 3: caldric_34 ( $174.9)
Seat 4: hystakes22 ( $111.37)
Seat 5: fishy1777 ( $129.65)
Seat 6: KS_J_Wales ( $101.5)
Seat 7: muckerchuckr ( $127.97)
Seat 8: NMDLAW ( $186.88)
Seat 9: jackariel ( $164.29)
Seat 10: Mps37 ( $100)
jackariel posts small blind (0.5)
Mps37 posts big blind (1)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to fishy1777 [ Qs, Qh ]
MadRedBull raises (4) to 4
karen2002 folds.
caldric_34 calls (4)
hystakes22 folds.
fishy1777 raises (8) to 8
KS_J_Wales folds.
muckerchuckr folds.
NMDLAW folds.
jackariel raises (14.5) to 15
Mps37 folds.
MadRedBull calls (11)
caldric_34 folds.
fishy1777 calls (7)
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 3d, 6c, Ts ]
jackariel bets (25)
MadRedBull raises (50) to 50
fishy1777 folds.
jackariel raises (50) to 75
MadRedBull calls (17.65)
MadRedBull is all-In.
** Dealing Turn ** : [ Qd ]
** Dealing River ** : [ Qc ]
Creating Main Pot with $182.3 with MadRedBull
** Summary **
Main Pot: $182.3 | Side Pot 1: $7.35 | Rake: $3
Board: [ 3d 6c Ts Qd Qc ]
MadRedBull balance $182.3, bet $82.65, collected $182.3, net +$99.65 [ Ad As ] [ two pairs, aces and queens -- Ad,As,Qd,Qc,Ts ]
karen2002 balance $91.4, didn't bet (folded)
caldric_34 balance $170.9, lost $4 (folded)
hystakes22 balance $111.37, didn't bet (folded)
fishy1777 balance $114.65, lost $15 (folded)
KS_J_Wales balance $101.5, didn't bet (folded)
muckerchuckr balance $127.97, didn't bet (folded)
NMDLAW balance $186.88, didn't bet (folded)
jackariel balance $81.64, bet $90, collected $7.35, lost -$82.65 [ Kh Kc ] [ two pairs, kings and queens -- Kh,Kc,Qd,Qc,Ts ]
Mps37 balance $99, lost $1 (folded)