Just wondering what the best hand you have ever played.

I played 2 of my best hands over thanksgiving weekend at the wynn. I was soooo happy about these hands I had to share them with all of you. This is also my first post so bare with me if my spelling or grammer is off.
Both were in a small $1/$3 no limit holdem game.

First hand:

I limped in under the gun with a 2h 2c.
Player A to my left raises to $12.
Everyone folds and I call the $12.
Flop comes:

5d 4d 2d.
I bet $15.
Player A raises to $45.
I call.
Turn is a Qc.
I check. Player A also checks.
River comes a Jh.
Board shows:

5d 4d 2d Qc Jh

I bet $60.
Player A Re-raises all in for about $250.
I figure I'm beat since there is a straight, flush, and straight flush out there and he could have tried to let me catch up by checking on the turn.
I muck my cards face up and show my set of 2's.
Player A shows 5h 5s.


Second Hand:

I raised under the gun to $15 with an As Qh.
Everyone folds to button, who has just sat down and has only played 3 hands total, who Re-raises to $30.
I call the $30.
Flop comes:

4d Qd 8h

I bet out $60
Button Re-raises all in for $120
I turn my cards face up to try and try to get a tell or something out the guy.
I said "I think this could be a chop pot if I call. You got Ace Queen also?"
He says "I'll show you one card. Pick any card. But I'll only show you one"
I reply "your set is good," and folded my hand.
Everyone at the table says "show the big bluff!! Show what you got!!"
He shows Qs Qc.

Even though I didn't win these pots, I still think these are the best hands I've ever played. I just couldn't believe that I put And it just so happened to be over the weekend.

Any thoughts on my decisions?

Please also post the best hands you've ever played.

Nice hands, and welcome. We're glad to have you here.

I laid down 99 on a K-9-2 rainbow flop in a cash game. I'd played with the guy a lot, and I had a hella read on him preflop and on the flop, and he freaked out when his KK didn't get paid off.

I completely ran over the table from then on, everyone was too scared to mess with me after that.

best hand I ever played was the luckiest hand I've ever played.

I hit a one outer on the river with AA to make the best full house out of 3 full houses.

One guy had 99
2nd had A6
I had AA

Board was 966xA when all said and done...

Over $400 pot at $100 NL.

And I played it like a total donk.

- Jordan

I understand your happiness, cuz bad players would lose all their money in those spots, but in reality, the folds are not great. First your set was up against a flush, str8, str8 flush, and possible over set, which he had. A guy pulls the trigger for all his money on that board, if you don't have a stone cold read, easy laydown. On the Ace Queen, the guy could have set, which he did, or AA KK. So the folds are smart, but you were not in that tough of situations. Not to knock you though cuz all my money would ofwent in on the flop when I turned my set of 2's.

I understand your happiness, cuz bad players would lose all their money in those spots, but in reality, the folds are not great. First your set was up against a flush, str8, str8 flush, and possible over set, which he had. A guy pulls the trigger for all his money on that board, if you don't have a stone cold read, easy laydown. On the Ace Queen, the guy could have set, which he did, or AA KK. So the folds are smart, but you were not in that tough of situations. Not to knock you though cuz all my money would ofwent in on the flop when I turned my set of 2's.

I don't know about "best I've ever played", but here is a good one I played against Ngoc "Jimmy" Tran in a cash game at the 2003 WSOP:



Then there''s a hand from last Saturday night, where I used a player's accurate asssessment of how I play against her. It's the $2-$3-$5, $10-to-go game at Lucky Chances. I'm in late position, with about $1200 in my stack. It's folded to me, and I wake up with pocket jacks. I open the betting for $20. The players after me fold, the small blind, with about $250, calls, and the big blind folds. $47 in the pot.

The flop comes perfectly for me: A J 5 rainbow. Now I'm hoping my opponent has a good ace. She checks to me, and I bet $20 -- a standard continuation bet for me. She calls. $87 in the pot.

The turn is a seven, putting two hearts on the board. She checks to me. I check after her.

The river is an only slightly scary queen of diamonds. My opponent bets out $100. I raise $200 more, more than enough to put her all-in. She calls me and turns over A 7:diamond: My set of jacks is good. I took all her money by making my flopped set look like a failed steal attempt.

Well the best hand I probably played was when the flop was 10 10 10 , and I bet A 10 UTG hard and KK and AA raised me all in and I won like an 800 dollar pot with quads. Turn was an Ace so I am really glad I bet hard before KK folded out, actually who knows what woulda happened.

Worst hand I ever played, I knowingly drew to the royal flush when 2 people had boats, just so I could get the sickest screen shot ever. Biggest hand I ever won at .5/1.


As for your laydowns up there. The laydown with 22 is really really amazing. I mean the guy totally should have bet the turn there were some cards that coulda come that woulda really put him to a monumental decision. Great fold, I would definetly lost my money there due to thats guys dangerous play. The AQ fold was a very good read as well.

And whoever folded 99 with K 9 2 rainbow is genius. That must have been your best friend or something. Great Read.

ONL1NE POCKER IS R1GG3D!!!!11111

I dont really remember the best hand I ever played. But I played a hand last night that I felt was good. I had an aggressive table image at this table.

Game #1438698563: Hold'em NL (£1/£2) - 2005/11/28 - 09:18:45 (UK)
Table "Toppenish" Seat 4 is the button.
Seat 1: gospel (£181 in chips)
Seat 2: Koko_Kanu (£229.75 in chips)
Seat 3: VoodoJake (£100 in chips)
Seat 4: Binbs (£196.91 in chips)
Seat 5: WHU OK (£147.75 in chips)
Seat 6: jackmor (£78.75 in chips)
WHU OK: posts small blind £1
jackmor: posts big blind £2
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to Binbs [A K ]
gospel: folds
Koko_Kanu: raises to £8
Binbs: raises to £19
WHU OK: folds
jackmor: folds
Koko_Kanu: calls £11
----- FLOP ----- [2 5 6 ]
Koko_Kanu: checks
Binbs: bets £35
Koko_Kanu: raises to £70
Binbs: raises to £177.91 and is all-in
Koko_Kanu: folds
Returned uncalled bets £107.91 to Binbs
----- SHOW DOWN -----
Binbs: shows [A K ] (High Card Ace)
Binbs collected £178 from Main pot
----- SUMMARY -----
Total pot £181 Main pot £178 Rake £3
****HAND ENDS****

The best hand I ever played was in a live $100 buy-in NL tournament about 2 months ago. I bluffed the crap out of the chip leader with complete scraps, and I basically had the whole hand planned out from start to finish. The only reason I was able to pull this off was because I knew that the chip leader was a great player, and knew about tells and the importance of small bets.


INFO:

I had been playing an extremely aggressive game so far. The table was beginning to fold to me because I was betting so often. I had been caught on a bluff once, so now all the good players were beginning to believe that the 'opposite rule' applied to me. (big bet = bluff, small bet = big hand.) Also, I had taken a great deal of care to give off a couple of false tells that would lead the better players to believe that I was just a stupid donk who they could easily beat with any sort of hand. Of course, I had now secretly switched gears. With any great hand, I would be betting like crazy, and I could now make minimum bets and give off my 'big hand tells' for an easy and cheap bluff.

Villain is an extremely smart player. He is not a trappy type of player that checks any good hand... he is playing straight tight/aggressive, and has won lots of chips off the loose calls from the 3 fish at the table. He has made several great calls, in situations where I was picking up tells on his opponents, so I can assume that he knows about the same sort of tells that I do. (Perfect... this means that I can give off a fake tell and reel him in like a fish on the line.)


My hole cards: 7:spade: 8:spade:

cheetaking is on the button with 4500 chips
villain is the big blind with 6750 chips

Blinds: 100/200


PRE-FLOP:

6 players fold
cheetaking raises to 600 (a pretty standard opening bet here in BSB play)
SB folds
BB calls (400)

A call from the big blind really doesn't mean much... He is a player who is very confident with his post-flop play, and he might think I am making a position raise.


THE FLOP:
Q:heart: J:diamond: K:spade:

This is a terrible flop for me, but provides a great opportunity for me to pretend to have a big hand. There are potentials for 2 pair and straights, so I should easily be able to convince him that I've got a monster.

Now, I give off the fake tell. I look at the flop for a couple seconds, and then look back at my chips. I had done this the only time that I had a real hand, so I was hoping that the villain would pick up on it.

villain checks (This means nothing. He knows I am aggressive, so he could easily be trying to set me up for a raise after a continuation bet from me.)

cheetaking bets 200

Also, as another false tell, as I bet the minimum I place my chips in the pot very timidly. This should give the impression that I am trying to suck him into re-raising.

By betting the minimum instead of my standard continuation bet of half the pot, after making a fake tell that I had a monster, I figured I could easily convince the villain that I was holding A/10 for the nut straight or K/Q for top 2 pair. If he had a monster that I couldn't beat, he would come back over the top of me and I would know I can't bluff him and get out. But if he calls, then I can be sure that he has a hand that he is not sure about and I can extract a huge pot off of him with more clever play.

villain calls (Bingo! He's got a hand, but he's not so sure about it after my sudden slow-down move. I've got him right where I want him.)


THE TURN:
Q:heart: J:diamond: K:spade: (2:diamond:)

a blank on the turn means that I need to play tricky again. I decide to make another timid bet, still signaling a monster.

villain checks

cheetaking bets 200

villain calls

if the river is another blank, it will be time to make my move. His play so far represents that he has either a draw or a pair with a decent kicker. Now, I just need to convince him to lead out.

I say "so my little bets aren't scaring you, eh?" (just a little line to try and convince him that I might have a monster but I might also be making scared bets. As it turns out, the line worked perfectly.)


THE RIVER:
Q:heart: J:diamond: K:spade: 2:diamond: 6:heart:

villain bets 1000

Hmm... a strange bet. The 6 and the 2 could not have helped him, which means that he probably hit something on the flop worth calling but not raising, and then leading out on the river after a blank. Very confusing. My only conclusions can be that he has A/K or Q/J and is trying to figure out if I really have a hand, or he just missed a draw with a 10, and is trying to protect his hand. It is possible that he has 2 pair or a straight, but that just doesn't fit his actions. I was giving off tells that said huge strength all the way to this point, so if he had flopped a monster he would surely have raised me to try and either figure out what I had or extract more chips. All signs pointed to him not having quite good enough of a hand to call a big bet with, so I decided that the time was right to make a move with my 8-high.

cheetaking re-raises to 3500 and is all-in.

This is exactly what I would do with a monster, so it fits the illusion perfectly.

Now, the villain has a real decision to make. I raised before the flop, timidly made the minimum bet twice when I almost always lead out with a half-pot sized bet, and now am re-raising all-in after a very big bet on the river. Knowing that I am a trappy player with big hands and over-aggressive when bluffing, he has to be thinking that I have a monster. I have weaved an elaborate trap, and there is nothing he can put me on aside from a monster hand.

villain ponders forever, about 2 minutes. I stay seated in my chair, hunched over the table, and I keep talking. (another false tell..; "people never start talking unless they have a hand.") Finally, he reaches for chips. I interpret this as a scam to try to see my reaction, and immediately I start shaking my head as if I can't believe it. (yet another false tell... it looks as if I am faking weakness and wanting him to call.)

Finally, the villain shakes his head, puts his chips back into his stack, and shows me his Q/J as he folds it. I muck my cards, and say "I was bluffing. Why didn't you call?" Never trust a poker player, right? He confidently leans back in his chair, and never questioned for a second that I didn't have a monster.

Villain then ended up getting busted 3 hands later when his jacks ran into my pocket kings. I took over the chip lead of the tournament, and went on to finish in 3rd place.

It was a friendly homegame with a bunch of regulars. I had just gotten done reading (and posting) and was focused to play well, and was paying extra special attention to everything going on at the table.

It was one of those moments where there's all this information that I'd latently known from observations just floating around... and if I just think about it a liiiiiittle bit more... and SNAP!

He can have KK and ONLY KK here.

Then I had to talk myself into laying it down.

As I fold it faceup I say to myself, "dammit, he has AA and I'm a donk-tard..."

Then he freaks out...

And my mind says to itself, "Huh? Oh. Yeah. That's right. What's up now. Beyotch..."