I'm in early MP with $170. Villain is the CO or button (can't remember) with $280. He's a 20/5 but I only have 40 hands on him.

I have [Qd] and open the pot for $8 (this is the right raise -- it's a tight table and 4x is plenty to thin the field). Villain calls from LP.

Pot is $18. Flop is [Qc][Th]. I bet $12. I figure I get a call a lot here because of all the draw possibilities, but a fold if he's on an underpair. But he raises the pot...he bets $42. $30 more for me to call.

Now I'm not folding. I'm only contemplating two choices here...flat call or all in.

Im pushing and expecting to win a hell of alot more than 50% of the time. Even if he has the nuts, you win 33% of the time.

What about the times he has AA, TT, KQ, KJ, KT, QJ, AK, any combo of pair and flush draw......?

All in, all the time.

I'm as they say, "Maalin!"

You have to push so you get paid of by KT, etc for the times he has AJ. Push now before the board is scary and you can't recoup a full buyin.

Okay, that's good to hear. Because I pushed. Only later did I start to question whether I made the right play. And I really was fearing KK more than AJ. As it turns out, he had [Ks] and was drawing for the J or a runner runner flush to save himself. He didn't get it. Final pot was about $337.

I just couldn't believe that he thought AK was good there given my preflop raise. I was playing about 16/5 poker. What hand was I raising with that he thought he could beat?