Luckbox (me)

I know all poker players think they are unlucky, but the guy who cracked my aces this weekend is really really lucky compared to me.

One hand after the aces hand, I was first to act in the small blind with king-eight suited. I raised into him (a tilt raise, but not a bad one), and he called. By the time the river ran out, he of course held the nine needed to fill the straight.

A flush and a straight on consecutive hands! I didn't have either all night.

Later in the evening, it looked like I was finally going to outflop him. I raised ace-nine of diamonds, he called, and the board was Ace-Nine-Eight with two hearts. I bet big, knowing he floated many bets, and he called. I had him on an ace, the two hearts, or some sort of straight draw around the eight-nine.

The turn brought a low, third heart, and of course my heart sank a bit. But I sucked it up and made a standard bet-fold of $21. He looked a bit hesitant and then called the bet. He would have raised his flushes and dumped the straights, so I now had him on some type of ace and his kicker being a heart for flush backup. I was hoping for a river brick.

And I got it. My two pair was even still the top two pair on the board, so now my best hope was that he had a lower two pair himself, or a queen or king kicker that he couldn't lay down to a big bet. I checked his stack, said "hmm, you've still got plenty of money" (a weak attempt to try and sound bluffy), and bet a cool, even $30.

He didn't look comfortable, and I was pretty sure I had him. That is, until he said "I can beat everything except that flush". Huh? Does he somehow have a straight? I checked the board again. No straight. Is he saying that with two pair? Maybe he has ace-nine like I do.

Then it hit me. He had pocket eights. He had actually flopped bottom set against my top two! He slowplayed the flop, and now he's panicking on the flushy board, putting me on the flush. And once again, I have been value betting against him with an inferior hand. For the love of all things holy...

He asked me a few questions, trying to get information out of me. I think I did a pretty good job acting relaxed and not giving anything away. "Will you show if I fold", he finally relented - he didn't want to call. "Sure", I replied. I'm a friendly guy. He folded, and I showed my top two, which got a "woooooow" from the table, and a bit of a hissy fit from my villain.

I got lucky against the luckbox, for once, and bluffed him off a better hand, even though that wasn't the intent of my line at all.