Well, this one went well for a huge pot, but I'd be interested in hearing what you guys think.

I went over to a casino near Tulsa last night and was catching very few hands for quite a while. Finally, in the wee hours, things started going my way a bit.

My opponent in this hand is one of two players in this whole game around here who actually scares me a little. He and his buddy are extremely good players who haved played quite a bit at the 10/20 NL at the Bellagio. His buddy is tighter but wasn't there last night. Anyhow, these guys buy into the 2/5 for around $2,000 or so, and I've seen this guy make bluffs on the river against tight players to the tune of $300-$400. He's extremely aggressive, fairly loose, but very much in control of his game.

He was raising a lot PF to around $25-$30 for quite a while with any playable hand and limping with pretty much anything else. Doing a lot along the lines of "provoke with controlled losses" and go big when hands hit right. Up to now, I'd seen him raise AXs, KJ, JJ (the JJ raise was a little bigger--$40 as I recall). And, not long before this hand, he'd moved around the table getting to my immediate left (not completely sure whether I was the reason for this or the 2 players to my right whom I considered to be the weak spots at the table).

Anyhow, in this hand, strong LAG raises to $25 UTG (we're 7-handed), 3 callers to me, and I look down at 66 in BB, so I call (my stack is $600 or so, strong LAG has $2,000 or so). Flop comes 6s9sTc. Pot is right at $100.

I bet out $50 and LAG raises to $150. The rest of the table folds. Now, this may seem fairly normal, but it's really not in this game. All of the good players know very well that I'm likely to have a very serious hand here, and it's actually been pretty tough getting action. This guy has no problem at all folding against me, as he's wisely done several times before.

Well, I wrongly decide that he probably has AsTs. I figure moving in here will exclude him from the hand, but I can flat call and shut it down on the turn if no spade falls. So, I flat call. In actuality, I question this decision. I now have something like $380 in my stack, and the pot is at nearly $400 if I flat call.

Putting him on pair with flush draw, I don't see what waiting until the turn really buys me except giving him a free card. Moreover, 87 is indeed out there. I hadn't see him make raises like this with suited connectors before, but IF that's what he has, I get 2 cards to catch up rather than 1. Morevoer, he could also have something like a gutshot with flush draw. It's very difficult to put this guy on a hand. So, I really think just moving in on the flop was the correct play here.

Anyhow, turn comes a blank 2. I figure any real bet has me pot-committed. I would have preferred to bet $200 on the turn with more stack depth, but I figure there's no turning back regardless of the river at that point, so I move in.

To my amazement, he calls and turns over 8d7s for the flopped nut straight (I knew it was there but was genuinely amazed that he actually had it).

But another deuce hits the river, and I take down a pot of somewhere around $1,400--biggest pot of my life, but I still got outplayed...

That's an excellent point--actually giving two ways to play the hand, either all-in on the flop or call the flop and checkraise the turn to all-in.

What's also again worth noting with regard to your idea, ice, is that it's just generally very nice to have position on the dangerous LAG (or dangerous TAG, for that matter). The next time I get either of these guys at the table, I think I need to consider moving around to get position if the opportunity arises.