3 wins in a row?!?

I sat with John at the Good Look club Tuesday night and was very sad to see him get slaughtered. In his defense, he was almost always ahead when he got all his money in. With the AA vs. QQ, all the money went in pre-flop. The Q came on the flop (not the turn, sorry John). Not that it matters. Some idiot in the corner says, "With all the money in the pot, you had to call with QQ". John rightly pointed out that the guy was getting 1 to 1 on his money (almost all the money came from John and his opponent) on a 4 to 1 draw! That was bad. The other hand, the cracked Broadway straight, was against a guy who flopped a set of Kings. The guy had bumped it up to $15 pre-flop and got a few callers, John included. John had QT. Flop was As Kd Qs. There was some action after the flop, but not a lot. John hung in with his bottom pair and gutshot. The turn was the Js. John moved all in with his Broadway, though the flush draw on board couldn't have looked pretty. The KK called and hit a Jack on the river for the boat. It wasn't pretty.

I finished slightly up ($75 off a $200 buyin) but the odd thing about last night is that I didn't show down a single hand. Every pot I took was as a result of a raise that wasn't called. I had KK twice, AA once and pocket 8's. All won decent pots for me. Three hands in particular stand out in my mind.

I'm in the cutoff with AA. There have been regular pre-flop raises and UTG+1 raises to $6, which is pretty weak. A bunch of callers around to me and I limp, hoping the guy to my left, who has been active, will rebump. He does, to $30 and everyone folds around to me. I re-raise $45 more and he inst-folds, saying he had AT, which sounds about right for a button steal. I play off that I had pocket 5's and made a read on him. I'm not sure if he buys it or not.

Hand 2. I have KK in middle position and make it 15 to go when it gets to me. Amazingly enough, I get 5 callers. Nice pot so far. Flop is 2h 5s 9h. I have the Kh, but there's enough in the pot that I don't want to play around anymore. It checks to me, I bet 45 and everyone folds.

Hand 3. My favorite hand of the night. I have pocket 8's in early position and make it 10 to go. I figure I'll juice the pot in case I hit. 5 players call. The flop is Qc 2c 6d. I make a continuation bet of 20. One guy calls. He might have a Queen or a flush draw or maybe he is reading me on AK and he hit the 6. The turn is 5h. I check. He also checks. I see this as a huge sign of weakness but I don't act on it when the river brings a Tc. The club scares me a bit. He carves out 30 and pushes it in. I go back over the hand. He could have the clubs but the way he checked the turn is bothering me. I put him on the 6 and it's starting to make more and more sense to me. I call and he shows 86o. My 8's are good and I take a nice pot off a nice read. I've played with this guy before (he looks a little like John Juanda) and he's prone to making moves so that gave me more ammunition for the call.