To Lay Down or Not Lay Down?

Unfortunately my Sunday was booked weeks ago for a birthday party, so I couldn't attend the HORSE festivities. Despite the busy weekend, I was able to squeeze in some Hold'em, and now I have two more hand histories to file away in the "Never Make That Play Again" mental cabinet.

I was at the Cascade on Saturday for their 3:00pm tourney. Got JJ early on and called someone else's preflop raise. Flop had both an Ace and a King, so I folded to a small bet. Of course the turn was a J. Few hands later, raised with QQ and got no action. Called a short-stack's all-in with 99 and they held up against his A8, so I should have had plenty of chips to ride on for awhile. A few more rounds of nothing playable, I'm at T2500 with 200/400 blinds, and then I get QJc in the SB. I figure I can take this pot with just a small raise, as the two who've limped in so far were passive and easy to push off post-flop. Action gets to me, I'm considering my raise amount, when the BB announces a raise. He had just been moved to the table and had less than T1000, but had already doubled up twice in a row with pretty random hands, so I couldn't really put him on a hand.

The dealer pushed his chips back and told him the action was still on me. Isn't that the ideal Poker situation? Knowing ahead of time what your opponents are going to do and base your decisions on that information? Now I know he's going to raise to T1500, which is what I was just about to do, so he's going to call me anyways. So I should have just laid down that marginal hand, but instead I push all-in, I guess in hopes that would make him fold. Nope. He calls, as well as both of the limpers (!) who were short-stacked anyways. BB had KTo, and both the limpers had pocket pairs (tens and sevens). All I needed was a Q or 3 clubs and I'd be good. No such luck - K on the flop gives BB the side pot and the main pot went to the set of Tens spiked on the River.

I have no one but myself to blame for a really, really bad call. :(

Moved over to the live game. Flopped a set twice, but lost once to a turned higher set and another to a rivered Flush. No amount of raising scared these guys off. Came back to about even after taking a number of smallish pots, and was getting ready to leave as the blinds got close. I get AA UTG+1 and raise. Everyone but the button folds. Flop is K59. I bet, get called. Turn is 6. I bet, get raised! 78 good for the straight? River is a 7. Wonderful. I check, he bets, and I tell him to take it as I toss my cards face up.

I try never to get married to my hand. I can bring myself to lay down high pocket pairs or TPTK when there's an obvious straight or flush on the board. A pair is just a pair, right? And after the nasty burns I've taken the last four times I've had AA, it was an easy laydown.

The guy gives a wry smile as he turns over his KQ and scoops the pot.

All I could do was shake my head and rack up with half my buy-in. I done got outplayed. I should have been playing consistently, and I would have won this time. The other four times in a row AA lost for me, I called a raise and still called the river just to see I was beat. Or even better, if I had learned my lesson in the first place, I would have laid down to a raise immediately and not have found myself in this predicament. But the one time I deviate, the one time I think I'm making the right move, the opponent is nice enough to let me know what a sucker I am. No one but myself to blame....