A mistake turned into a success!

I had a pretty good weekend on the poker tables. I made over $100 on each of the last three days. Most of that was due to me getting back at the tables over at TopRankedPoker.com and B2B. I love those B2B sites. I won my biggest pot ever on Saturday night there. I had limped in with pocket 8's at an eight person 100 Euro table, and some dude raised it up pretty high (I was pretty sure he had Kings or Aces with that raise). There was another caller, and the flop came 78T. I checked and pf raiser bet huge. I of course went over the top all-in, and he quickly called with his pocket Kings. The pot was just over 200 Euro (so about $250).

Here is a sequence of hands that I had over at an 8 person 50 Euro table. I kind of screwed up the first hand by not getting maximum value, but I made up for it with the second hand.

First Hand: I'm in the Small blind with Pocket 5's and just under a full stack. There is one limper, and villain raises it up to 5xBB (to 2.50). I call, as does the BB. Limper folds. Flop is Ace of spades, 8 of clubs, and 5 of clubs. I hit a set, now how do I make the most money off of him? I check, as does the BB. Villain raises it up to 5.50 (which is about 2/3 pot). I call, and the BB folds. The Turn is the 5 of hearts! Bingo Bango Bongo! Quads! I check again, and villain bets 12.00 (another 2/3 pot). I just called (I should have raised him here). The river is the 7 of clubs. So that put out 3 clubs. It definitely could look like I was drawing to a flush, and I just hit it on the river. So that 3rd club is not a good card for me, unless he was going for a flush too. So pot is at 43.00, and I lead out and bet 25.00. He folds, and makes some comment like "nice catch" or something like that.

I didn't play that monster hand very well, and I should have definitely gotten more value out of it.

About 5 hands later, this hand comes up. It involves the same villain, and now I have him covered (my 80 to his 42). I am in early position, and I limp in with the Ten of spades and the 8 of spades. T8s is usually a hand I muck, but this table was playing pretty loose, so I started playing a few more hands. Some other person min bets it after me, and the BB (villain from above) calls, as do I. Flop comes 3 of spades, 4 of spades, and 7 of hearts. Pot is 3.25, and villain in the BB leads out for 2.50. I call, other dude folds. Turn is the Ace of clubs. Villain leads out again for 2/3 pot. And I call again, chasing my flush. I know I didn't have odds to chase, but I think my implied odds were really high. River comes the 9 of spades, and I hit my flush. So there is 19.00 in the pot now. Villain checks to me. I'm thinking of how much I can bet, when the dude says, "not again!" thinking that I chased a flush against him just like the last time. So I decide to over bet the pot and put him all in (so like a 32 Euro bet). Hopefully this will look like a steal. He's probably thinking "If he really did make the flush, there is no way he would over bet like that". So he called and I scooped a nice size pot. Too bad B2B hand histories don't show mucked cards, because I don't know what he had. Pocket 3's or 4's maybe?

He then lays into me about being a flush chasing fool. I then inform him that I had quads on the hand before. I doubt he believed me.

So what did we learn here? Pay attention to your table image, and figure out what the other people think about you. Use that information to your advantage, and you can make a lot of money.