The Sound of Failing Miserably

New and creative ways to lose pots:

1/2 NLHE

Pot #1: Limp in from the SB with 5,5 (4 other limpers already). BB raises to $15. UTG calls, UTG+1 calls, other 2 callers call and I call. 6 players. Flop is K,5,2 rainbow - pretty ideal for my hand because I think anyone with a king will want to end the pot on the flop. As I'm first to act, however, I don't want to risk it being checked around if no one has a king and then have someone pick up a draw on the turn. I bet $37 into the $90 pot, figuring any king will call or better yet, raise. I have $77 behind after this bet. UTG+1 calls and everyone else folds. No way he has AA or KK because he would have re-raised the $15 preflop at a minimum. Turn is an A, still no flush draw. I forget the exact action here but it all goes in for both of us and he has me covered. I have a set, he has 3.4 off...wheel straight. River bricks and I'm felted. In retrospect I made his odds but I never suspected that he could be playing 3,4 and calling the $15 UTG+2. If I bet 80 and leave myself $33 behind I probably fail to extract any value in the event that someone does have a king and being that he was a gambling sort, I'm pretty sure he calls open-ended and hits to felt me anyway.

Pot #2: I have K,10 off. I'm again in SB in a limped pot with 2 other players, including the Brazilian guy to my immediate left. Flop is K,x,x rainbow. I lead the flop for $8 into $6. He calls, other player folds. Turn is an 8. I lead the pot for $15 into $22. He calls. River is a 4. I lead the pot for $25 and he calls and flips over 8,4 of diamonds. I'm flabbergasted and as he rakes in the pot I do what I never do, which is question his play. I ask him why he called the flop. His answer? I had a diamond draw. He had 3 diamonds to the flush, that is.

Pot #3: I have A,6 and again in a 3 way limped pot, this time in position. Flop comes A,Q,x. Other 2 players check to me, I bet $10. One girl calls other player folds. Turn is a brick. She checks. I bet something like $22. She calls. River is an 8. Before acting, she checks her hole cards, then checks. I check behind because of her peek and she has Q,8, rivered 2 pair.

Pot #4: UTG raises to $10 preflop, I call from mid-position with 10,10, someone else calls and the guy from the BB shoves for 42, initial raiser folds, I call, other caller folds. He has J,10. Guy to my right immediately says "I folded a 10" at which point I know I'm f'd. I am already only hoping for a 4 card flush to get on board because I know he's going to hit a J and any straight I can make, he makes one better (except if J,Q,K,A hits the board).

J on the flop, no flush draw, drawing dead.

Good times, good times.