Holdem Notebook: Head spinning

A wild 90 minutes of Rush poker didn't start well tonight - I got stacked by quads, then half-stacked on a three bet gone wrong vs. aces. Also lost like 3 or 4 showdowns in a row and figured it wasn't going to be my night at all. But the poker gods gave it all back to me in the form of the right side of "standard" coolers - mostly flopping sets. In fact, I flopped 5 sets in 736 hands, and these hands were my 5 biggest winners. I started the night down well over a buy in, and ended up 1 buy-in to the positive.

Here is one of my sets.

Your converted hand, now with more cowbell.
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em $0.10/$0.25 - 9 players

UTG: $11.80
UTG+1: $26.10 (Hero)
MP: $37.33
MP2: $28.93
HJ: $25.34
CO: $34.06
Button: $28.40
SB: $38.90
BB: $47.25

Preflop: ($0.35) Hero is UTG+1 with

(9 players)
UTG folds, Hero raises to $0.75, MP folds, MP2 raises to $1.25, 5 folds, Hero calls $0.50
I don't fold to min 3bets. Thanks for the odds to crack your aces.

Flop: ($2.85)

(2 players)
Hero checks, MP2 bets $2.85, Hero raises to $8, MP2 calls $5.15
When he calls my checkraise, I briefly think he might have kings. I dismiss the thought, though, for 2 reasons. 1, he wouldn't be pot on the flop with top set. Two, I don't care if he has kings, I'm not folding. He might also somehow have 2 hearts, but I can't see how. AhQh is possible - but I can't see AQs min-3-betting. I think his most likely hand is aces or ace-king that can't let go.

The checkraised flop gives me a chance to try out something I have been messing up lately. The pot is 18.85, I have 16.85 back. I used to just shove here - I thought it looked bluffy or scared. Sometimes I would get looked up, sometimes not. But I think the better plan is to chop up your bet into 2 smaller, chunks. The player has already shown a propensity to not want to fold, let's do our best to keep the bets nice and friendly-like. We'll start with a half-potter.

Turn: ($18.85)