Well, when a NL table didn't come together at my usual casino, I decided to go over to the next one (same thing last night with a very good run). Took a while to get on the table, but it was pretty crazy. I'll refrain from telling the sordid details of a horror story of a guy who was playing his last hand (I was getting ready to get his seat), called an all-in with KK from a guy who had KTs (and $800) and got completely gutted when the flop came QJ9. Worst bad beat I have ever seen (at least factoring in the amount of money in play there).

But here's the story of my night: Just after I sat down, a guy sporting a nice Rolex sits down 2 seats to my left and buys in for $600, which is also just about what I have. And I look down to see AA UTG, which I decide to raise to $25. New guy re-raises to $100. Great, I think (although I'm still a bit nervous having just seen the horror story with KK), and I move in. He calls and loses (never saw his hand, but he professes to have had KK--I don't believe him). Sweet... I now have almost $1,200 in front of me.

My opponent rebuys for another $600 without blinking an eye.

A few hands later, I play AJ in MP. This guy has been playing every hand in the meantime and making very big raises. He's already gained at least $100. Flop here comes AQX. I bet pot, he calls. I bet $65 on the turn (a little over half the pot), which is another Q, after he checks to me, and he moves in for $700 or so. While it was probably a bad fold, I just can't call that, and let it go.

Well, I'm obviously hoping to flop a set against this guy, but it turns out to be a disadvantage that I'm sitting just 2 seats to his right. He's definitely got it in for me, but I don't play a lot of hands, and several of my pair hands, he's not in at all. With these moves, he gets up to around $1,200 or more, but then starts calming down and playing reasonably for quite a while. But moving in on the turn against TP hands for that kind of money and big stacks definitely got him a lot.

So, anyhow, I just can't flop a set against him (don't really remember whether I did it the whole night, but if so, didn't get much out of it).

Then after about 3 hours, I have this little run of 3 AK hands in pretty quick succession. The first 2 were little (one won me the blinds with a raise, the other I let go unimproved--just didn't seem like the kind of table to be getting anything at all out there without something substantial).

Then the big one: Tighter play and some problems has the maniac back down to around $800, and I've been having some problems of my own, so I just barely have him covered (basically, for me, it was the AJ, then calling some raises with little pairs and suited connectors, but never getting anything I could go with). He's no longer been playing maniacally, really, but I figure he still has it in for me.

So, I get AsKc UTG, and make it $20 to go. 2 callers, including maniac, who is in SB. The flop comes all spades, including the K. So, I now have TP and nut flush draw. Maniac kind of flinches on this flop, like he wants to bet, but draws back and lets me make my bet, which I proceed to do: $65 as usual. Other player folds and maniac puts me to the test: All-in raise for $750. Well, I'm not terribly enthusiastic, but this one is pretty damn good. If I'm behind, I have the nut draw, and I honestly don't think I'm behind--obviously, this is a bet that doesn't want to be called.

Well, the river is another spade, and the board didn't pair, so I ended up with the nuts. But I did make some mistakes: I didn't make the guy turn over his hand before I turned over mine. Also, I didn't look closely for some bluff tells, which I think he had (hand over mouth). He said he had a set, but I saw a little spade (looked like the 9) flash as he mucked his hand. I of course also did make a bad call if he had a little flush (probably even worse than the set, since that would mean his hand took away a lot of my outs). But, the way he'd been playing, I have serious doubts as to whether he had either.

That's probably about the ballsiest call of my poker career--but it turned out to be my biggest winning session to date as well.

He left after that hand...

Thats a huge all in raise, but other than the scary amount of money, I think its actually a fairly easy call. No way, hes pushing in with a flush and its doubtful he would do it with a set either.

Why do you bet when he flinches to bet? Do you think he was doing that just to stop you from betting? Depending on how they do it, it is often an indication of a big hand and you should have considered checking the flop to draw cheaper.

Actually, bri, that's one reason why I hesitated to make the call. I had to think about the meaning of this move, and I really wasn't sure.

He didn't grab a bunch of chips like he was trying to block my bet but looked more like a reflexive moving his hand toward his chips--just kind of a jump of his right hand toward his chips very quickly, then relaxing. I don't think it was an act but rather more a reflex that declared his intention to take the pot from me, although I was a little unsure with this guy.

He was fairly quick at realizing how much it would take to get people to fold. Against others, during his really maniacal phase, he was often checkraising to $250 or so after a $50 bet. But he did have to know, just after the aces, that I wasn't afraid to get all of my chips in, and I seriously thought about calling on the AJ hand.

Anyhow, I agree with you completely, ice, but was somewhat uncertain for a while just what I was prepared to call with for that kind of money. Objectively, I do think TP was enough, and fortunately, I didn't get bled any more after my earlier laydown. Here, the draw made it much easier.

I also found that in this situation it helped to remind myself, first, that these are just chips, and, second, that even if I lose on a call like that, I'm only down $350 for the night (which I obviously don't like, but it's not horrible). On the one hand, it's obviously very painful to turn a nice winning session into a losing one, but, with a guy like that, you have to make a very clear decision on what it takes to call because you just can't let him take away your ability to bet. It was actually not too bad to go through the dry phase after my AJ because it enabled me to give some sober thought to how I planned on dealing with him. When he went into tight phase, I was just afraid I'd missed my opportunity to double up my big stack.