A memorable Poker loss, because nothing else is happening worth talking about

In Confessions of a Winning Poker Player, Jack King said, “Few players recall big pots they have won — strange as it seems — but every player can remember with remarkable accuracy the outstanding tough beats of his career.” Seems true to me, ’cause walking in here I can hardly remember how I built my bankroll, but I can’t stop thinking how I lost it.

-Rounders

So I’m sitting in my Friday game, it’s early but I have a good chip count, and get dealt A8o at the small blind. I make my call, and the big blind checks her cards, thinks about raising, but just checks. Flop comes up As8sXs (forget the last, but all spades). Now I’m sitting top two pair, I bet aggressive to scare off flush draws, big blind calls, everyone else folds out. Perfect, got her heads up. Turn is a blank, I bet check-raise here for a healthy amount, call. River comes up 10s, now I’m worried about the flush again, so I check, she bets minimum. Perfect, she doesn’t have it, and I still have two good pair (dead man’s hand, ironically enough). I raise her again and get called. I flip over my pairs, she laughs and flips over…

KsQs. She had the nuts since river (I was beat badly the whole time for those just catching up). She slow played it perfect, and I lost pretty much everything in front of me. Add on to me folding what would be the nuts 10 minutes later, and it was my worst poker performance in about 6 months. Just when you think you’re building momentum, your luck changes.