Just the 2nd hand of the night, I am dealt 5-8 off-suite, and I'm BB. UTG raises a standard raise, everyone else folds, and I decide to call. Already, I have made a bad play here with a very weak hand, can't justify this at all. Miraculously, the flop is 8-5-8, I flopped the boat, and I'm feeling pretty good about my bad decision to play rags.
I check, and my opponent, who is known to make continuation bets, does exactly that. He makes another pretty standard bet. I can't seem too eager, and now have to try and make him think I'm on a draw of some kind, but obviously I make the call.
The river brings a Q, and I'm pretty happy about that, because it may give him another excuse to bet. I check again, and this time he checks too. I figure that we probably has nothing. If he had A-Q, he would probably try to win the pot right there after he got called on a bluff on the flop.
The river is another Q bringing 2 pair on the board. I decide I have to try and make some money off this pot, as he likely has Ace high, and would check it down if I were to check here. I bet, not real big tho, hoping he'll call with Ace high and the 2 pair on board. Instead, he raises, about 2 times my bet.
I didn't see that coming at all. He's an aggressive player, and has be known to take risks to win big pots before, so I certainly considered the possibility he had nothing, not even Ace high. He could also have A-Q, but I rule this option out, because he didn't bet on the turn when he hit his card. He could also have a medium-high pocket pair, making his hand better than the 2 pair on board.
Risking about half my remaining chips, I make the call, feeling my flopped boat is still probably miles ahead. I push the chips in, and as I do so, I see him reach for just one card, and I immediately get a real bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. He flips over a Queen, and I realize I'm now severally crippled just 2 hands in. I still can't understand how he didn't bet on the turn, unless he though he was beat, which would have been one hell of a read.
I managed to rebuild my stack not too long afterwards, and was even the chip leader at my table for a period of time, but didn't manage to win my table due to another weirdly played hand, playing against the same guy.
With 4 players left at the table, and the chips moving steadily from one person to the next, I was now the short -stack, but still had almost 80% of my starting stack. I find 10-10 with my hole cards, and I raise it up to about 25% of what I have left. The same guy as before, from out of position, thinks long and hard, asks me for my chip count, counts out that many chips, then after about 2 minutes of deliberating, he decides just to call.
The flop is 4-8-J, not a terrible flop for me, and with enough money already in the pot to almost double me up, I push all-in hoping he doesn't have the Jack. He does, of course, with a hand 10-J. Again, I have no idea how he even called my raise, let alone considered pushing me all-in. I guess this was a lesson that successful poker doesn't always make sense to me. This guy went on to win the tournament, in relative ease.