Got my Fix

Had not played poker in what seemed life an eternity. Actually was less than a week. But, there is no internet poker to scratch the itch, so the times between sessions seems longer than they really are.

Carls house is the place. .25/.50 is the game. I arrive late and buy in for $100. I splash around a bit and get up a little with some steals and uncontested pots. I get AQos in the small blind. There are three limpers. I decide to punish them and bump it to $5. The big blind calls. All three limpers call. So much for punishment. The flop comes K-T-8. I check and id gets checked around. The turn is a 9. The board is now rainbow. I decide to bet out $15 to see if I can buy the pot here. If not I still have outs to the nuts. Everyone folds except the under the gun player. He flats. Am I looking at QJ here? The river peels the beautiful J of spades. I double check it to make sure there are no flushes that I might have missed. I decide to bet about $25. He instantly moves all in. I call and table the nuts. He mucks his hand and mumbles something about not seeing that coming. Carls said I am sneaky. I tell him I have always been sneaky, he just does not pay attention.

Very next hand, I look down at KK on the button. Prasad is directly on my right and raises it to $8. I decide to play them a slow and smooth call. I figured no one else would call due to the size of the bet. I was wrong. The big blind and Carl came along. The flop is Q-8-4. Two hearts. Checks to Prasad and he bets $20. I flat and the other two fold. The turn is the Jh. Prasad checks and I check. I was playing the player here and I have seen Prasad stop and go in this spot. The river is the Tc. Prasad instant fires $35 into the pot. I call asking if he caught a set on the river or if he had the set of queens. He said no I was good as I tabled my KK. Bam Bam and I am up $200 for the night. I hang on to it and a little more to cash out up $215 Oh I busted Carl on the last hand of the night. He had JJ. I flopped a set with 88. Ten high board and he gets it in. He was a shortie, so not much money was to be had.

It left me with a question though. During both of my big hands, I ended up tabling the winner without seeing the others hold cards. Now at a casino, I will always wait for the raiser to show before I expose my cards. In both of these hands, I was the caller, yet never saw the losing hands. Prasad later told me he had AQ and I believe him. I do not know what the other buy had. Most probable being any other queen. It is a home game, and I do not want to be a dick. This is true especially in the first hand. I have the mortal nuts. If I set there and make him table his second best hand only to show him the joint, well that just makes me feel dirty.

What do you think? I guess I could show first and ask to see his cards, citing that I called him. I don't know.