Last night I headed over to the Diamond to while away the hours waiting for my sweetie to get back. While I was there I sat at what could be referred to as an "action" table; there were a bunch of maniacs raising and re-raising nearly every hand pre-flop. I hunkered down and waited for big hands, and of course none came, and I was soon whittled down from my original buy-in of $100 to about $60 or so. I was just getting ready to leave the next time the blinds get to me when there's a kill pot (a $6/12 hand). I'm under the gun and dealt AK offsuit. Figuring this is as good a hand as any to decide if the poker gods love me or hate me I raise it to $12. 5 callers (see what I mean about it being an action table?). Flop comes 2-3-2. SB checks, BB (who was a completely aggressive maniac who would bet anything and also happened to get lucky a lot) bet, and I called. Everyone called, and everyone is in. Pot is now already $90. I can't put the big blind on a 2, or even a 3, because he literally would bet or raise any 2 cards. Turn card is a beautiful, magical king. SB checks, BB bet, and now I raise ($24 raise at this point). We lose only one player and now the pot is $186. Someone is slow-playing a 2. I know it. Everyone else at the table knows it. We're just waiting to find out who. River is a 7. It's checked to me, I bet my last $9, get all but one caller, and we flip up. Other hands were K6o, pocket 5s, and the rest were mucked. So I got to take down that massive $260 pot! I actually raisied my arms up and did my best Homer Simpson "woo hoo!", which I'm not sure everyone else appreciated, but fuck 'em for being such maniacs. I stuck around for one more orbit or two, lost about $20, and decided to skedaddle while I was still in the black.

Moral of the story is: get your money in while you have the best of it. One big hand can make your whole night.