This is one of the sickest poker hands you'll ever see. Comments are welcome!

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Went away camping in the mountains with a few other dads and their daughters. After the kids went to sleep we decided to play some $1/2 NL. There was a guy there that used to prop at the Commerce in some $100/200 and $200/400 stud games. He was good and had a great run of cards for the first few hours and was dominating. But he was also getting drunk. I was card dead and could not play back at him. I finally got 55 and pushed against his 3 bet. He had 77 and I hit a 5! I then flopped a straight and he pushed at me on the turn and I won that. A few hours later I had jx with two clubs and bet on a board of AJx with two clubs. He called. On the turn there was another A (I don’t think he has an A) and I bet again and he calls. On the river the flush comes and I bet again and he calls with K2 of clubs! I had him all the way up until the river. I hate when this happens -- you actually had the best hand the entire time, but you are rooting to make your draw. You then make your draw and it was your downfall -- careful what you wish for!

About 3:30am I had a good draw. Middle pair, flush draw, gut shot straight. If I was facing a TPTK hand, which I assumed I was facing, I had 15+ outs. I was first to act and should have pushed the turn but checked; hey it was late! He bets a little more than half my stack. I knew he would call my push because he clearly had something and was priced in to call. I felt I had about the right odds, maybe not exactly, but close, even if he called and I was dying to go to sleep so I push, he calls and I hit my flush. Poker can be fun sometimes!

I visited Vegas last week and played in the new room at Casears for the first time and really enjoyed it -- see my review at here.

I played the $2/5 game with no max buy-in. Because of this the game played much higher than a typical $2/5 game. Most of the players had several thousand dollars behind them. What was very unusual was that most of the players were inexperienced. They weren't timid though. They were gamblers. One guy saw 100% of the flops and this was for 5 hours. He even called 3 bets PF when the pot was raised to $75-100 and he didn't have anything. It didn't matter, he wanted to see flops. Because of his loose play most of the table loosened up too. One time a guy 3 bet to $100 and 3 other players called with nothing. What’s even better is that two of them had the bottom end of a four card straight on the river and they called a $250 bet when there was also a 4 card flush. They beat the guy who bet – he had top pair only!

I started with $500 and played fairly tight at first, but did manage to win one nice pot. I had KQ and called a raise with position. The flop came KJ7 with three hearts. The guy bets $50 and I called – I pegged him as the one good player at the table, but he had been playing a bit too many pots so I felt that I could be good. The flop was a blank and he bet out $125. At this point I was a bit concerned but now felt that he was a bit scared of me so either he had a two pair type hand and I was beat but he was scared of the hearts, or he had the A of hearts. I called and was hoping that he would slow down on the river and I could likely take it away. Sure enough a fourth card fell, he checked and I bet $250 and he folded. I didn’t have a heart.

An hour or so later a young guy who was pretty good raised to $20 and I made it $60 with AKs. The loose player (who plays 100% of the pots) called and the initial raiser folded. The flop came 46K rainbow and it’s checked to me so I make it $150. The loose player called. The turn came a 7, and it’s checked to me again and I now push and he folds.

I picked up a bunch of other hands during the session by simply raising from position and continually firing away when it was checked to me. Most of the guys at the table were very loose AND passive. They never seemed to put pressure on me when they didn’t have a hand and they usually bet when they had a hand. In fact, during the entire session I NEVER showed down a hand that was not the best hand. NEVER. I also hit trips once and stacked a guy who had TPTK but that was only for $200 or so. I ended the session with $1550 in chips. I was sorry that I had to leave but we were catching a plane back to LA. It was a really fun and stress-free session.

Here's a pretty sick hand I just watched. Luigi66369 is poker pro Patrik Antonius. I didn't put it through a hand converter, but it's worth following:

Full Tilt Poker Game #1420648299: Table Halbert (heads up) - $300/$600 - No Limit Hold'em - 16:09:25 ET - 2025/12/16
Seat 1: Phil Ivey ($65,098)
Seat 2: Luigi66369 ($54,899)
Luigi66369 posts the small blind of $300
Phil Ivey posts the big blind of $600
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
devilsagain (Observer): lol
thepenisblue (Observer): cuz hes agsngsta
Delthafunky1 (Observer): why not
dimmy (Observer): because he wants to be like mike
Luigi66369 raises to $1,800
BelOwaB0Ve (Observer): phil is black
RazorEdge (Observer): how you know its Patrick?
dontsaveher (Observer): cuz she scks black ppl $#%%s
squigs46 (Observer): he like the molestashe
Phil Ivey raises to $5,400
The Hate (Observer): lol
Luigi66369 calls $3,600
*** FLOP *** [2h Qh Qd]
AAziatik (Observer): 6500
thepenisblue (Observer): I WANT TO SELECT PHIL IVEY AS PART OF THE RACIAL DRAFT
Phil Ivey has 15 seconds left to act
Phil Ivey bets $7,200
RazorEdge (Observer): lol
devilsagain (Observer): LMAO
Fearme85 (Observer): who is luigi? what pro
Soundbwoy611 (Observer): he's ours
Luigi66369 has 15 seconds left to act
Luigi66369 calls $7,200
The Hate (Observer): patrikck antonious
*** TURN *** [2h Qh Qd] [3d]
RiverMikey (Observer): partick antuious
Soundbwoy611 (Observer): and tiger
The Hate (Observer): here we go again lol
dimmy (Observer): luigi is david pham I heard
Equity Trader (Observer): its like the show on GSN, hte network for games lol
Phil Ivey checks
RazorEdge (Observer): how you guys know?
McWrinkles (Observer): i hope phil gets his money back from that horrible beat
dontsaveher (Observer): hey phil i know a hot white chick that wants to bang you
thepenisblue (Observer): THAT QUESTION IS ASKED EWAYY TOO MUCH
AAziatik (Observer): 16 000
ryne2516 (Observer): LUIGI IS MICHAEL BINGER
dimmy (Observer): HE'S DAVID PHAM
Luigi66369 has 15 seconds left to act
McWrinkles (Observer): luigi is marios brother
syracuse44 (Observer): binger sucks
dukeer (Observer): the thing about phil he puts on sready pressure
Soundbwoy611 (Observer): patrik antonius
Luigi66369 bets $25,800
cobrasu27 (Observer): everytime i watch poker on tv, phill takes a bad beat man... it sucks
woowoo3 (Observer): hes antonius
nnfire (Observer): here we go again
A_Varkoni (Observer): no he is patrik antonius
nvdoug (Observer): luigi is the man here, lol
Phil Ivey raises to $51,600
Luigi66369 calls $16,499, and is all in
Phil Ivey shows [Kc Kh]
Luigi66369 shows [9h Ah]
XxArt-VxX (Observer): nice
thepenisblue (Observer): lol pot sized bet
Uncalled bet of $9,301 returned to Phil Ivey
*** RIVER *** [2h Qh Qd 3d] [Ad]
Phil Ivey shows two pair, Kings and Queens
Luigi66369 shows two pair, Aces and Queens
Luigi66369 wins the pot ($109,797.50) with two pair, Aces and Queens
PaulDenh (Observer): lol
seat0 (Observer): wow
mds278599 (Observer): wow
XxArt-VxX (Observer): omg
cyborgatakk (Observer): ??"?
Fearme85 (Observer): omg
jpaznstyle (Observer): whoa
RiverMikey (Observer): damnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
Xthefour4sX (Observer): oooooooooooooooo nh
Soundbwoy611 (Observer): wow
tiffany23cutie (Observer): o wow
nnfire (Observer): lol
The Hate (Observer): OMG LOL
nvdoug (Observer): omg
AAziatik (Observer): jeeeeeez
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $109,798 | Rake $0.50
Board: [2h Qh Qd 3d Ad]
Seat 1: Phil Ivey (big blind) showed [Kc Kh] and lost with two pair, Kings and Queens
Seat 2: Luigi66369 (small blind) showed [9h Ah] and won ($109,797.50) with two pair, Aces and Queens

Had an odd situation come up yesterday. I'm playing two tables on Full Tilt. On one table I get dealt two black kings just as the flop gets dealt on the other table. Two red kings show up on that table and I think to myself how nice it would have been to see that flop on my other table.

It gets raised to me and I 3-bet with my black kings and the initial better callers. The flop comes 2 red kings for quads on the flop! Anyway, the hand was pretty uneventful. I raised the flop hoping that he wouldn't believe I had a king. I find that more often then not people will reraise you when you bet a paired board. Anyway, the guy folded so it was just an normal hand, but the coincidence was worth noting. Or perhaps the random card dealing software was stuck!