Two hands, both queens

Well, I received Queens, or "ladies," or "The Hilton Sisters," or (my favorite) "Four Tits" twice tonight. Once I played them right, once I played them wrong.

First time was at "The Aquarium." I got QQ in early position and limped. Normally I would raise pre-flop with queens, but I had just been talking about queens with KingLucky and we talked about how TJ Cloutier says you should play queens like a middle pair. Two spots after my limp a player raised to $3. Another player called and the original raiser was a bit of a maniac, so I re-raised. I was trying to isolate the maniac, so I raised almost all in (pot limit). Both players called the $12 raise. I hit a queen on the flop and pushed the rest of my stack in, a big $1.12. Both called of course, and my set of queens held against AA and KQ. A Pauly ( http://taopoker.blogspot.com/) special, Aces cracked by The Hilton Sisters. I should win something.

The next time I got queens was at Royal Vegas. I raised to $2 pre-flop this time and again got raised, this time by a "raise or fold" bettor who pushed me to $7.50. Player 3 calls and I call. Flop is Jack High with one club, so I push all in for $30. Mr. Raise-or-Fold says "nice bet" and folds and Player 3 calls with A5 of clubs. Runner runner clubs come and I am busted. Raise-or-Fold said he dropped AK. These fish and their flushes, completely insane.

So I played my Queens COMPLETELY wrong and won $40, then played them exactly right and lost $30.

Wow man. Poker. Yeah.