[Nate tha' Great]

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Here's one from last night: Two limpers to me, I raise in CO+1 with KQs. Button cold calls, blinds call. Flop is K-high. I bet the whole way, because in my mind, someone with AK would have likely raised or reraised with that hand. Well, that sounds great until the button shows down AK at showdown. Now, I don't think I played the hand incorrectly necessarily, but I think with marginal hands like middle pair if you're getting called, you have to think a little more about the fact that a lot of opponents aren't going to be aggressive, and will call with better hands instead of raising.

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I hate to say it, but your desrciption of the hand here seems to be more emblematic of a sort of mini-tilt than the actual way that you played the hand. Betting top pair, good kicker is automatic the whole way through. There are certainly some weird, passive opponents (paricularly in live games) who will just call with something like TPTK, but they're usually also the sort who will also call down with ace-high. Certainly, you should take notice if one of these guys raises, but fearing calls is not good poker.

The reason that I mention this is that I think one of the primary ways in which good players tilt is to miss a lot of value bets when they're running bad.