Kings Fucked Up by the Ladies

If this was a porn flick the title would have been heaven. Then again, we are talking about poker here, so expect hell. i was playing on a media free roll event during the APT Philippines 2010 event last August. Ah, the joys of freeroll, one of the perks of the new job. Playing for relatively higher stakes at cost of none. About 18-20 media people registered (divided into two tables, of course) and some of them still had work to do during the media tournament itself (or i'd like to think so as this will be my Excuse #1)

Blinds: 20-40, 9-handed table

After three players folded, i raised to 400 pre-flop from the middle position forcing the next five players, including the small blind to throw away their hand. The big blind immediately made the call, however. i put him at Aces and felt good about my chances.

FLOP:

First to act after the flop, the big blind checked to me as i immediately shoved. Surprised, he also went all-in as i excitedly flipped my hand over and showed the guy across the table i had serious pockets.

MY HAND:

After seeing my hand he disgustingly showed his hand.

OPPONENT:

( At this point, i was already celebrating inside my head; i could taste the chips. i was so sure i was going to be the big stack bully after this hand!)

TURN:

The turn did cooperate, i was halfway to a Jordan fist-pump and halfway to pulling all the pot my way.

And then the other lady came.

RIVER:

Like every bad beat in my poker life, the emotion was already emptied even before the queen hit the board. Yes i was excited and yes i was expecting that i will win the hand but for some strange reason i knew the queen was coming (or not)

Either way, i quickly stood up went to the other side of the table and congratulated my nemesis.

Gingerly, i walked back to our work area thinking of ways to soften the blow and explain to them how i busted out first in the media freeroll event.

After-the-fact Realizations:
+ Was the 400 raise too big or too small? My reasoning was that i wanted to eliminate all the players who had aces as they could hit it on the board; if they really wanted to get it, they had to pay for it. (Well for the Q-7 guy, even that was not enough)
+ i went all-in after the flop where my opponent hit his Q (top pair on the board) would it have gone differently if i slow-played my pocket kings? (He did not run away from the 400 and my all-in, was he calling all the way, anyway?)