Halfway There

The poblem with playing the bad beat tables is that you have to have two great hands involved in a showdown. I have not been playing poker seriously for very long (about 18 months now) but I have played a lot of hands. Not once in that time do I remember seeing a hand that would have qualified for the bad beat in any situation I have played. I once had a straight-flush lose to a royal but the winning hand would not have qualified as the winner only used one card from their pocket Three times I have been playing when the bad beat was hit on another table at Party, including the time it was over one million, but my tables have never even been close. Well, last night would have been very nice indeed if anybody other than me could have caught a hand. First up, I get AA in the big blind. Now I like to play PPs aggressive as possible in almost all positions to extract as much value as I can. That being said, I will limp from from the BB with AA or KK on occassion and hope for a board that I can get a few extra bets from. I flopped the third A and checked behind the small blind. The three limpers checked behind. I was hoping someone was holding Ax but that hope was dashed when the fourth A came on the turn. I checked again and hoped someone in late position would bluff at the pot. No joy. I finally bet on the river and got two callers for a little pot. Someone chatted, "Why no raise?" I didn't answer then but in thinking about it, I decided that a raise preflop probably would have been called by all of the limpers, putting an extra $8 into the pot. From there, if I had bet on any street short of the river, everyone probably would have folded as no one had an A. A river bet might have kept the same two callers in. Perhaps the best play would have been the pre-flop raise and then check after both As to feign fear of them. I might have gotten a bluff attempt at that point but that would have probably chased everyone out but me and my check-raise would have shut down the bluffer. Anyone got a suggestion to milk the value out of this situation? I am a proponent of betting non-stop at the 2-4 bad beat tables as the calls will come but I think I had just "too good" a hand in this one to make a lot of money. Second question, how do four people call pre-flop without an A among them?

I later turned a royal and made a little money out of a three of a kind and a straight. There was a paired board so I was hoping for a full house capper but the trips acutally re-raised once, before realizing he was in trouble. The straight just called to the river and I made a nice pot on that one. The 2-4 bad beat tables have been printing money lately. Don't tell anyone.

Planning on playing the 11:00 p.m $50 MTT on Party tonight per my usual pattern. I have been reading the Harrington book (ordered through Pauley's site) and it has been very interesting. I have identified with his style of play the most among the famous players. Tight, tight, tight until everybody believes it. Then push when the situation begs for it. We'll see how it goes.