A bizarre win, a good read and a big suckout.

So I went back to the east side club last night and as usual some wild play. being a $1-2 table, there was a raise on almost every hand. To play you had to assume you were going in or $15-20 minimum. Every once in a while there would be a cheap flop but in general, a lot of action. I decided to play tight as this was a table that you could make some good money at and people were making plays all the time, strong hands had good potential. 3 stand out in particular for me.

I called a $10 raise with Ac-7c. 3 others in the pot. Flop comes Kc-9h-7c. First to act this quiet younger guy who has lost a few hundred already making plays and getting caught. He raises $25. Next to act is the short stack, who calls. I call with my draw. Next card out is the 4c making my nut flush. First player checks, short stack goes all in for $37, I call. The quiet kid goes all in for another $57 on top. I am happy with this and call. I then turn over my hand and show the flush, he looks crushed. As the river comes out the quiet kid throws his hand into the muck, the river is another K. The short stack folds but the quiet kid just looks sick. Someone says to him 'did you hit that'? He nods. His cards are still on top of the muck as the dealer asks if she can turn over. I say 'ok but the hand is dead'. She turns over his cards, a K-9 which would have given him the full house. She pushes the pot towards me. I feel bad for the kid so I take out $75 of the pot and throw it too him. As I have written before, I think it pays dividends to present a sportsmanlike, nice image. He is stunned that I would give it to him. I say to him that he had the best hand, he just made a mistake. He gives $25 back to me and says thanks. I get a lot of props from the table for being a gentleman about it. But it goes to prove, always turn up your hand in case you read it wrong! A little while later when the quite kid wins a big hand he throws me another $25 and says that as he wins big pots he will give it back. Dividends!

This next hand was interesting for me as I used some good deduction to make a solid read. I had pocket Js in mid position. There were already 3 callers and I felt that if I raised everyone may call anyway the way it was going, so I limped for $2. Someone on a short stack made it $10, 6 callers. Flop comes J-Q-K with 2 spades. First to act is the same quiet kid who I had the hand with before. He bets $25, next to him is a short stack who goes all-in for about $60. I call, it folds to the kid who calls. I figure I may be behind here with my set, but i start to get a feeling that perhaps I am not. Turn brings the 10c. This is the worst card for me. It makes any A into a straight and there now 2 clubs and 2 spades. The kid throws out $75 and I go into the tank. Almost anyone else at the table I would be in the muck, but I start to think back. This is someone who was frequently raising pre-flop. He only limped in on this one, very out of character if he was holding a hand. He also struck me as the exact kind of player who uses aggression to buy pots regardless of his cards. I look at him and for some reason I feel like he does not want a call. I am sitting on about $225 at this point. I come over the top and go all-in. He thinks for a second and throws his hand away. It didn't hurt that the river came out another Jack giving me quads, but I was proud and got more props from the table for a sick read of the kid. I felt really good about this one.

Final hand to talk about was a total suck-out on my part. As I said, this table was kind of nuts. There was this younger russian guy who was playing a alot of hands and was acting pretty loose. I had Ac-4c and he raised it to $20. 4 callers. Having seen him try and make plays with rags, I call. Flop comes out Jc-Ah-2d. He throws out $60 and it gets folded to me. I look at him and think he is making a move so I ask what he has behind him, he says another $60. I throw out $150, it folds to him and he calls all-in. He asks if I want to do business (run the turn and river 2 or 3 times), I say 'I don't know what you have.' He turns over A-J for top 2 pair, I say I don't think he wants to do business as I show only the A. He looks and says, no business. I am pissed that I made the incorrect read although figuring what he had played before I do not think it was such a bad move. The guy next to me, a loud, somewhat over the top player says "with this table, watch runner runner come out". And sure enough the next card is a three. I need the 5 for the straight and when the river hits with it, I cannot believe it. I collect the chips, the russian goes for a cooler and later comes back to say nice hand.

All in all, finished up about $365 (after tips and time) for the night and it was wild and fun getting there.