Those who do not learn from history…

Here are two fun hands played in pretty close succession. Although I finished down over all, I feel like I owned Villain pretty hard in both:

Full Tilt Poker, $10/$20 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter

MP: $2,391
CO: $7,159.50
BTN: $3,358
SB: $2,000
Hero (BB): $4,850
UTG: $5,768

Pre-Flop: K 6 dealt to Hero (BB)
4 folds, SB raises to $60, Hero calls $40

Flop: ($120) 4 3 Q (2 Players)
SB bets $85, Hero raises to $240, SB raises to $455, Hero calls $215

Turn: ($1,030) T (2 Players)
SB checks, Hero bets $555, SB calls $555

River: ($2,140) 9 (2 Players)
SB checks, Hero checks

Results: $2,140 Pot ($3 Rake)
SB showed J 9 (a pair of Nines) and WON $2,137 (+$1,067 NET)
Hero showed K 6 (King Queen high) and LOST (-$1,070 NET)

Sooooo frustrating to bluff-call with the best hand and end up losing the pot on a “bad beat”. It would have been so sick if the river had gone check-check and I’d won the pot with K-high. But I got the guy back the next orbit:

Full Tilt Poker, $10/$20 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 5 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter

CO: $8,688.50
BTN: $3,389
SB: $5,115
Hero (BB): $5,580
UTG: $10,411

Pre-Flop: 8 T dealt to Hero (BB)
3 folds, SB raises to $60, Hero calls $40

Flop: ($120) 4 Q 5 (2 Players)
SB bets $88, Hero raises to $222, SB raises to $455, Hero raises to $999, SB folds

Results: $1,030 Pot ($3 Rake)
Hero mucked 8 T and WON $1,027 (+$512 NET)

Stack sizes were just perfect for this. There was like 4K left in the effective stacks. Villain’s options if he has air here are pretty much to shove 200BB or fold. He can easily shove continue with sets and open-ended straight draws, but I think everything else is even kind of tough for him. Like, even if he thinks I’m full of it, shoving on me with JJ kind of sucks cuz I am never calling with worse.

Plus there’s the whole leveling thing going on where each of us knows the other knows he’s very capable of having air here. I kind of win that battle by making the best use of leverage. I have position and my bet-sizing risks only about 1K to put 5K of Villain’s money at risk.