I am in seat 9 listening to seat 7 and seat 10 talk about how you need to have quads or better to win at this table because of the sick one and two-outers this guy is hitting on the river.

Sure enough, for the next two hours, his chip stack doubles – all from one and two-outers on the river.

The first playable hand I get is pocket Queens. I flop quads and double up. I don’t see another playable hand for an hour, so I leave and head over to MotorCity Casino.

At MotorCity, I sit down to a table of familiar faces. The lady to my right is a solid player at a table of loose players.

She makes a comment about the only way you can win at this table is to have quads or better. And, as it turns out, the only hands she has won at this table were quads.

An hour into this session, this person hits quads. Again.

Two hours into the session, I have not had a single playable hand. As I am thinking about calling it a night, I get dealt pocket Queens.

The Quads lady is in the hand to my right and to my left is a notoriously loose player.

The flop comes A-2-2 with two spades. The lady is first to act and checks.

I immediately put her on 2-2, given her track record on this night. I ask her “why did you check?” before betting out $50.

Mr. Loose calls, and Ms. Quads calls.

The flop is a Queen. Ms. Quads bets $100. I ask her if she has quads already, then I call.

Mr. Loose folds.

The flop is the case Queen. Ms. Quads checks. I make a value bet of $50. Truth be told, I hoped she had A-A or 2-2. The Bad Beat Jackpot at MotorCity pays on Aces full of Jacks or better getting beat as long as both hole cards play. Quads over quads would have paid out about $40,000.

Instead of a bad beat, it was bad news: she asked me if she could see one card. “No, not tonight” was my reply.

“Should I call or fold?” she asks me.

“If you have pocket Aces or pocket deuces, then call. Otherwise, fold”, I reply.

She calls and shows a dry Ace.

Two playable  hands at two casinos in four hours happens to be quad Queens.

What are the odds?

Action folds around to the button, he calls. I have played with this player before. He is a 50-ish Asian gentleman that is known to aggressively play any two cards. We have done battle before with each of us beating the other roughly half the time. That said, I generally stay out of his pots unless I have the nuts.

The flop comes 8-3-10 rainbow. I bet out $50. The button raises me to $100. I put him on pocket 10s, but call anyway. My reads during this session were spot-on. At this point I am confident I was beat on the flop.

Of all the quads I have had, most have been quad 8’s. I want to see the turn card, hoping for the case 8.

Turn card is an ace. I bet $100. The button raises me to $200. I momentarily put him on A-10. Two pair to my set, and two over cards. I still have a nagging feeling he has a set of 10’s. The problem is I am now pot-committed. I call.

The table talk after the hand reveals that this gentleman put me on A-A preflop, so he thinks I have a set of aces on the turn.

The river is another 10. “He has quad 10’s,” I think to myself. Odds are he does not have quads, but anything is possible in a cash game. I check. This confuses the button, but he bets out $100 into a $650 pot. I can’t fold with the pot odds, but I can’t raise him all-in for another $200 if he has quad 10’s or 10’s full of aces.

I was so focused on him having one of those two hands, I thought he was making a small value bet of roughly 15% of the pot instead of pushing all in for what would have been about half the pot. Convinced I am beat and he made a value bet on the river, I call.

I immediately show 8’s full of 10’s. He stands up. Slams the cards face-up on the table with a loud “ahh!”. “He is celebrating taking down the biggest pot of the night,” I think to myself.

My eyes turn to his cards. He had pocket 3’s. Pocket 3’s for $100 on the flop with two over cards? My first bad read of the night basically doubled me up.

Time to leave the game … a winner.