When a right decision just seems sooo wrong...

I had the opportunity to play the following hand over this past weekend, and I thought I'd run through the hand to allow you to get a feel for the decision-making process that goes on sometimes when playing in a cash game. Also, the end result of the hand was just too ironic to pass up the opportunity to discuss it here.


I will interject my thoughts in to the hand history as the hand plays out. To set the scenario, one of the players at the table had been playing many hands by putting in the minimum raise, and was often raising with garbage. On the couple occasions where he had recently had a decent hand he had lost. That player's name was twetty2525. The other player involved in the hand was a tight, aggressive player named Cytoviper. I've been playing fairly tight myself, as I usually do in the cash games, and was up from my $80 buy-in when the following hand came up:



Full Tilt Poker Game #7004780543: Table Begonia Bay - $1/$2 - No Limit Hold'em - 12:48:26 ET - 2008/06/28
Seat 1: caca993 ($544.65)
Seat 2: Phantom Aces ($204.90)
Seat 3: pallavicini ($208.10), is sitting out
Seat 4: mbagraduate ($41)
Seat 5: OrlandoRyan ($77.25)
Seat 6: Cytoviper ($323.55)
Seat 7: twetty2525 ($69.35)
Seat 8: Copy That Jack ($210.10)
Seat 9: G4M3ST3R ($34)
Phantom Aces posts the small blind of $1
mbagraduate posts the big blind of $2
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Phantom Aces [Qh Qd] - wow! Very nice hand for the small blind. Let's hope for some action!
OrlandoRyan calls $2
Cytoviper raises to $9 - OK. I've got a raiser. Now let's hope to build a pot.
twetty2525 raises to $16 - I don't give much credit here to this raise. He's been raising a lot.
Copy That Jack folds
G4M3ST3R folds
caca993 folds
Prior to my action, I thought about reraising to $70, since that would set twetty2525 all in, but right before I hit the "Raise" button, I thought to myself "What if Cytoviper actually has a hand, and I raise right in to it?" I thought I could probably find out the same information without risking nearly as much, so I decided to raise, but to a lower amount. If Cytoviper has a big hand, he'll let me know pretty quickly.
Phantom Aces raises to $35
mbagraduate folds
OrlandoRyan has 15 seconds left to act
OrlandoRyan folds
Cytoviper raises to $125 - Well, this is a 4th raise. It certainly would indicate a very strong hand.
twetty2525 calls $53.35, and is all in - Honestly, I don't know what twetty2525 has, but even he can't be that dumb to be playing with nothing here. The action has now gone raise-raise-raise-raise-all in. I'm pretty sure Queens are dead. Easy decision now.
Phantom Aces has 15 seconds left to act
Phantom Aces folds
Cytoviper shows [Ah As] - well, the read was correct! Not bad to only lose $35 with Queens there.
twetty2525 shows [Tc Th]
Uncalled bet of $55.65 returned to Cytoviper
*** FLOP *** [Qc 3h Ac] - Whew! We both would have flopped sets. I'd have gone all in for sure here!
*** TURN *** [Qc 3h Ac] [Qs] - Are you f---ing kidding me?!? I would have made quads! There would have been another $320 in the pot, too!!
*** RIVER *** [Qc 3h Ac Qs] [2h]
Cytoviper shows a full house, Aces full of Queens
twetty2525 shows two pair, Queens and Tens
Cytoviper wins the pot ($174.70) with a full house, Aces full of Queens
twetty2525 is sitting out
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $177.70 | Rake $3
Board: [Qc 3h Ac Qs 2h]
Seat 1: caca993 (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: Phantom Aces (small blind) folded before the Flop and would have scooped a huge pot had he called...UGH!
Seat 3: pallavicini is sitting out
Seat 4: mbagraduate (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: OrlandoRyan folded before the Flop
Seat 6: Cytoviper showed [Ah As] and won ($174.70) with a full house, Aces full of Queens
Seat 7: twetty2525 showed [Tc Th] and lost with two pair, Queens and Tens
Seat 8: Copy That Jack didn't bet (folded)
Seat 9: G4M3ST3R didn't bet (folded)

It just seems so wrong that after I make that decision, and it's correct to fold there, that the "poker gods" would put that board out there to make me see that. Just plain wrong!! Well, hopefully all my reads are that good and that I can scoop a nice pot some other time. Right?