Looking back, this wasn't really a monumental hand or anything, certainly nothing worth posting a hand history about. But at the time, it was hilarious. A little history: The previous two hands I had worked cher55 over something fierce. And I guarantee she left the table thinking I was worst player she's ever seen, but luckier than hell. But she made several key mistakes each time that ended up giving me all her money. She had only sat down five hands earlier with $25. As you can see, she was already down to $3 when this one came up. Two hands earlier, I had a 45o in the SB. She was the BB with AKs. Nobody raised ahead of me preflop and I called the extra 10 cents. That's pretty much a given, especially with a 2-3 chip blind structure (actually more like 3-5 here, but you get the point). Regardless how sucky your cards are, it's always worth completing the small blind if there's no raise, especially with a lot of limpers giving you outstanding odds for the few times you get lucky. She then raised a quarter, the minimum. Everybody called. The flop came Q-high, but gave me a gutshot, and she bet another quarter. Everybody else folded, but the pot odds were right for me to call. On the turn, I missed my gutshot, but I paired my 4. She bet another quarter. I knew right then that she had absolutely no piece of the board, but I was still open to danger, and I couldn't completely rule out a pocket pair smaller than the Q. But as long as she was willing to just bet a quarter, I was calling. The river was a blank, she bet another quarter, I called and won the hand with my pair of 4s. Obviously, her mistake that hand was playing so weakly. You don't just min raise with AK preflop, and certainly not AKs! You push that puppy hard, and if it's raised ahead of you, you reraise. Plus she continued making min bets all through the hand, signalling to me that she had nothing except the faint hope I would fold, but not the courage to make me do so with a stronger bet. Next hand, I had A9s on the button and decided to raise it up 4xBB in the hopes of either taking the pot, or at least narrowing the field. Two people called, including cher55, who held a K6. The flop came K-high, giving me absolutely nothing. But I decided to represent anyway, so I bet $3, roughly the size of the pot. She flat calls, and the other guy folds. The turn is another blank, and I bet $6 into a $9 pot. She flat calls again. Finally, I get lucky and river an A. This time I bet roughly half the size of the pot, $10. She thinks a long time and finally calls and I drag the pot, leaving her with $3. She made two huge mistakes on that hand: 1. She called a raise with K6, plus she was out of position in every way possible, with several people still to act behind her and me to act behind her on every round of betting. If you're going to do that, plan on an early retirement from your poker career, with no pension to fall back on. 2. She check-called the entire way. Had she led out at the flop with even a standard size bet, I would have been out of there. Had she check-raised me, I would have been out. Instead, she tried to play it cute and/or weak, allowing me to pass her up on the river. Okay, maybe she was unsure of where she was because of her shitty kicker (which is a good argument against playing crap like K6 -- supposing you actually catch a piece of it, what the hell do you do then?). But had she played back at me on the flop, she would have gotten a good idea of where she was in the hand and either (a) forced me out and taken the pot, or (b) gotten more information earlier that would have allowed her to lose the hand much more cheaply than she ultimately did. And then the very next hand, as Vince Van Patten would say, I was dealt a real hand. I felt no need to make anything more than a standard raise preflop, because I knew I had just tilted her bad and all of her chips were coming in. To my delight, she moved all-in, and then the fellow behind her reraised on top of that. I just called, happy to take more chips in later rounds of betting. Texas Hold'em $0.25-$0.25 NL (real money), hand #1,160,345,183 Table Nikosia, 11 Aug 2005 10:40 PM Seat 1: i am run ($20.25 in chips) Seat 2: Jitlest ($14.95 in chips) Seat 3: rbdavis3 [KD,KS] ($59.15 in chips) Seat 5: cher55 ($3 in chips) Seat 6: BNinja12 ($18.25 in chips) Seat 8: cdegit544 ($2.80 in chips) Seat 10: amun-ra ($4.25 in chips) ANTES/BLINDScdegit544 posts blind ($0.15), amun-ra posts blind ($0.25). PRE-FLOPi am run folds, Jitlest folds, rbdavis3 bets $1, cher55 bets $3 and is all-in, BNinja12 bets $5, cdegit544 folds, amun-ra folds, rbdavis3 calls $4. FLOP [board cards QC,2D,KH ]rbdavis3 checks, BNinja12 bets $4, rbdavis3 bets $10, BNinja12 folds. TURN [board cards QC,2D,KH,KC ] RIVER [board cards QC,2D,KH,KC,3H ] SHOWDOWNrbdavis3 shows [ KD,KS ]cher55 mucks cards [ 9S,AC ]rbdavis3 wins $17.40, rbdavis3 wins $8.95. SUMMARYDealer: BNinja12Pot: $27.40, (including rake: $1.05)i am run, loses $0Jitlest, loses $0rbdavis3, bets $15, collects $26.35, net $11.35cher55, loses $3BNinja12, loses $9cdegit544, loses $0.15amun-ra, loses $0.25 Hmmm ... now that I've looked back over everything, it looks like I've somehow screwed up my account of position. I must have missed a hand or two somewhere, but it's too late for me to go back and try to figure it out now. I think there must have been a hand between the first two I wrote about and the last one. I'm am fairly certain my account of position the first two hands is accurate, if not absolutely, then relatively.

Source: Trials of a Poker Apprentice