Playing at the high stakes tables at online poker rooms can be expensive but rewarding as well, since you stand to win or lose big pots. A few days ago I experienced my worst bad beat losing a huge pot. This time though I did win an enormous pot comparing to what I used to play for. The hand took place at $5,000 No Limit 6-max tables at Pokerstars.com and it was a 3-way pot. Although I didn't actually have a hand, I managed to show a straight at showdown. Here's how!

Yesterday night I was playing cash games along with a couple of big tournaments at Pokerstars. One of the poker tables was a $5,000 No Limit and I was doing pretty ok, until I got dealt Aces on the button. I ran into Kings in that poker hand and in the end we pushed all our chips in the middle preflop. The poker hand's pot reached 17 thousand dollars and I consider it to be my biggest bad beat in terms of money in my online poker career. Here is the poker hand where I lost my biggest ever pot.

I was playing a 6-max $400NL table yesterday when I got dealt 22's at the Big Blind. My poker hand improved to quads by the river while the small blind had hit his straight flush! We went to showdown obviously but the hand was not awarded the Bad Beat Jackpot. That was not because my hand was 2222 instead of 8888 or better which is necessary for the Bad Beat Jackpot, but because I was actually playing at Pokerstars and not at Party Poker where the jackpot is available.

I played up to 2000NL the last couple of days at Pokerstars.com and although I didn't score quite big, two poker hands won and lost me a $8K pot in each one of them. I flopped a set in the first one and being deep, I managed to shove all my chips before the turn, while in the second one we were heads up and I turned a set holding Kings. However I still needed to improve by the river to win the hand, but I wasn't lucky enough!

Poker Stars, NL Hold'em Tournament, 4,000/8,000 Blinds, 6 Players

Hero (CO): 474,967
BTN: 197,050
SB: 364,982
BB: 323,414
UTG: 231,079
MP: 141,008

Pre-Flop: (16,800) 8 7 dealt to Hero (CO)
2 folds, Hero raises to 19,000, BTN folds, SB calls 15,000, BB folds

Flop: (50,800) 8 8 4 (2 Players)
SB checks, Hero bets 16,000, SB calls 16,000

Turn: (82,800) 9 (2 Players)
SB bets 33,333, Hero raises to 152,000, SB raises to 329,182 and is All-In, Hero calls 177,182

River: (741,164) 7 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: 741,164 Pot
Hero showed 8 7 (a full house, Eights full of Sevens) and WON 741,164 (+376,182 NET)
SB showed 4 4 (a full house, Fours full of Eights) and LOST (-364,982 NET)