Ok, after bri's report, I've got to share this one with you guys--happened just before I sat down at the table tonight, and I can't remember positions exactly, but the game is 2/5 NLHE.

Guy who I'm going to call AK-kid raises to $15 (the nickname derives from a $1,000+ pot this guy won at showdown on the RIVER to another player who bet his remaining stack of $300 with unimproved AQ, and AK-kid CALLS on the river with unimproved AK to win the pot...), gets a few callers, then short-stack moves in to make it $60. AK-kid calls, as do 4 others.

Flop comes KQ3, and AK-kid bets out $50 (pot is already $240). Tight player to his left now folds AQ (!?), but everyone else is still in, so we're now 4-way, including short-stack.

Turn is another K, and now the betting really starts. AK-kid moves in for around $200, and the whole table calls.

Well, I'm just wondering at this point who has the biggest full house or who has the quads (I can't even remember what the river was--think it was a 9). But, nope, the old Aisthesis analysis is not quite right:

AK-kid now turns over, believe it or not, 83s!!!!!!

But.... guess what? It gets even better. 83s wins the pot at SHOWDOWN (pairing the 3) on THAT board with 4 players in who have called a $60 re-raise PF (after driving out AQ as the only real hand of any value). Short-stack showed AJ--which I can at least understand...

I mean, at a play money table or something, ok, but this is for hundreds of REAL dollars!!

Ais... welcome to the wonderful world of B&M poker... Honestly, half the days I play, I feel like freakin Phil Ivey (and I suck... )... How bout this for weird...

I get dealt in MP... Someone throws out the standard $15 raise... I call, so do 4 others...

6-way pot... Flop [10s] ... One of those "I'm gonna lose all my money here" hands...

someone in EP (PF raiser) bets like $10... I raise to $60... Every freakin body calls (man I'm dead)...

Turn ... WOOHOO.... let the flushchasers come... Checked around to me, I, very deceptively check.... LP bets $100... Every freakin body calls... I call...

River ... oh yeah... I'm getting those flushers now... You can almost feel the air in the room die... PF raiser checks... For God knows what reason, the next guy in line FOLDS to a check... And, to make it worse, the 2 bozos next to him must not have been paying attention, cause they FOLD too... I'm like WTF (I even asked them if they knew nobody bet...)... So it's heads up w/ me and doofus PF raiser, and he looks like he's dyin to fold... He's covering his chips, so I ask how much he's got left (I'm trying to make it melodramatic, knowing he's gonna fold anyway...)... So, I bet $90, which is what he had left.... AND HE CALLS.... Flips over , with a look about as funny as you'll ever see in your life, like "ah ha... I trapped ya... My TPTK is gonna hold up, I don't care if the board is paired and there's 3 to a flush..." Suffice it to say that he left after basically signing over his ATM card to me... Hopefully to reread Dan Harrington's book

PS... Sorry to hijack....

Oh, you're not hijacking at all. I've had two almost identical hands to yours--on one of them I had 4 players all-in for an $1,100 pot, two of them drawing to a flush against my boat made on the flop (I have 99, and flop is AA9).

The thing about this kind of play is that it often tempts me way too much to try getting involved in some iffy stuff for big pots (I'm sure AQ was upset on this one, but it was really a completely logical laydown, and the guy really should have been more upset about putting in $60 PF), but I'm increasingly convinced that that's just the wrong approach.

Much better is to get something fairly secure and run with it. And I think set on a flush board is a good one to try, particularly if you can see the turn and/or river pretty cheap. I had another almost identical one to yours where the board also paired on the turn, and I checked with the same idea. I just had one opponent, but he then bet $100 at me on the river, which I called and picked up a very nice pot--could have raised, but there were a couple of hands that could beat me (mainly a very plausible bigger boat), and I felt the pot was already just fine. It's a hand with some great implied odds at these tables because most flushes just don't slow down at all on paired boards.

But I think this kind of play is also a very good reason to be very cautious early about getting out on any kind of limb without a hand having some big time potential. And, if the board starts turning sour on you, you have to also get away as early as possible, I think.

Don't mean to toot my own horn, but I think 2 of my best Poker skills I've learned (and God knows there aren't many), especially at a B&M game, are patience and knowing when my TP isn't good enough... Saves me tons of money I see idiots all day throwing an allin w/ K2 to lose to a K5... I just sit back, drink the free beer, learn chip tricks, and win 2-3 big hands a night...

Now that I'm done giving myself a blowjob... let me reiterate that I LOVE B&M POKER... Let me know if you're comin down to FL someday, and I'll take you to see some of the aquariums...