Hello my name is dirkb. Yakshemash !

I guess it had to happen eventually; I just got back from a fairly annoying losing weekend. In Schenefeld I managed to lose € 600 playing 2.5/5 NL, € 210 in a tournament, and € 200 playing 10/20 Limit Hold'em. To make matters worse, I lost about $2k playing SHNL Hold'em on Ultimate Bet, mostly 5/10. The session had been going fairly poorly but I managed to climb back to being only $550 down (from over $2k), when I sat at a table with 2 other guys both of whom I had previously played with and thought they were pretty weak. I post the BB and get AA in my first hand. I HATE AA in SHNL. I really do. To the point where I consider just open shoving it preflop so that at least I will not have to deal with it. The game is so full of plays and bluffs that it's real hard to lay down Aces if the board doesn't read 8s9sTs (and even then often wrong). Anyway, since shoving is clearly not an optimal strategy, my general line for playing AA is to raise at least the pot with them preflop, overbet the pot on the flop, and shove the turn unless it's real clear that the turn helped someone. If they manage to outflop me, so be it, if they call an overbet on the flop and then hit a random two-pair or draw on the turn, so be it.

Anyway, so i raise to $45 preflop (which is slightly more than the pot) and bet $180 into the $135 pot on the KT5 rainbow board, both call. The turn is a Q, which is kind of a scary card for all sorts of 2-pair hands (remember this is a threehanded game though and the pot was unraised before me so K7 is actually much more likely than KQ), but since the pot is already $675 at this point I shove my last $775. I get called in both spots and know I'm beat but get a little hope when the river gives me an A. Didn't help though, as my opponents had K7o and J9o for top pair no kicker and gutshot on the flop, and I lose to the straight. Awesome.

I kept wondering how I could have done this better. Clearly, folding the turn after the way I played the flop is not an option. The way the hand ACTUALLY played out, overbetting the flop backfired as perhaps that's what made the top pair guy decide to call rather than raise (he was next to act behind me) - not that gutshot guy had any business being in the hand anyway, but I have some faith that if top pair guy raises the gutshot guy will fold.
Maybe if i just make my standard continuation bet of like $90, top pair guy raises, in which case gutshot guy will either fold right away or I get to reraise all-in and either get them both to fold or at least get my money in good.
Of course, I could have just bet $350 or some outrageous amount into the $135 pot on the flop,stupid as that may seem, and until I come up with something better, that will be my play for next time.