Here are a couple of hands I lost recently. I am not that happy with either, but in “tough” games, sometimes things are pretty unclear.

I hold Qs 10s in the small blind. Al fold tot he button, who limps. Weird, but there it is. Does he have A-A? I doubt it. I think he (a regular) is stuck, knows I often 3-bet (I would have here) and is just trying to see a flop.

I would often raise in the SB to kill the BB when I have a hand as good as Q-10 suited, but the big blind will never fold anything and I will be out of position against two, so I call.

Flop is Q-6-5. A decide to check and check-raise the auto-bet from the button (players who limp preflop in my game pretty much ALWAYS bet the flop if only the blinds are in and both blinds check. They are correct to do so.

OK, check-check-autobet-raise-fold. Now a reraise. What is this? A-A? A good queen? A draw like 8-7? I am pretty sure my queen is still good ad I fur bet. He calls. The pot is big, but I do not like his call.

The turn is a king,. I am not crazy about that either, so check. He bets. I call. He comments, “No raise this time?” This comment almost certainly means I am now losing, if I was ever ahead, I should check-fold the river, which is a 2 but I check call. He has K-9. He tells me he figured I figured he had nothing for his bet on the flop, so he reraised to show he did even though he didn’t. Then he caught his out. Fun, huh?

Similar hand. SB, and me in BB with 6-7. I take the free play. Flop is K-K -7. Two spades, I have none. SB checks, I bet as I do not want anyone play on. I do not even want to try to pick up the autobet.

Limper raises. What can this be? Does he have a king? Can’t be. First, he is likely to have open raised. Second, with a king he is highly likely to wait to punish me on the turn, No, this is just a nonsense raise. Maybe a flush draw.

Perhaps I should 3-bet here, but I call (SB folded) and see if the turn is a spade. Bang! Spade four. I check. Wait. He is checking his hole cards. Now he bets. Does he have a flush and knows to me a false tell. I doubt that. I think he has nothing and is afraid the check and show it. Should I raise? Probably I should as I am pretty sure my read is accurate, but at the table I did not. I called. River Q. I was hooping for no queen, no jack )quack) I check-call. He has Q-10 off with no spade and takes the pot.

These are not bad beat stories. And I could have played each one differently. Probably even better (though I could have played worse too and folded the best hand) . Just another day in the life. But I thought they were interesting examples of how the $30-$60 is playing these days. Much money to be made, but you have to work for it.