One gap connectors, paired jacks and paired kings / these are a few of my favorite things

Last night, I was way in the groove. Four simultaneous $0.50/$1 tables on Party Poker, and I ended up ahead on all of them. Here's a few of my favorite hands:

• 8♣ 6♣, big blind

  I check, four players to the flop, of 769 rainbow. Bottom pair, and an open ended straight draw for me. Small blind checks, I bet 50¢, three callers, the turn is an 8, giving me two pair, but giving someone else a possible straight. The small blind bets $1, making the pot $5. I've got a 10% chance of hitting one of my four outs, and I figure there's a 10% chance the guy doesn't have a straight, so I call. One more caller, one fold, and with a $7 pot, the river is another beautiful 6. Small blind bets, I raise to $2, they both call, and I take down the $13 pot, facing T3 (he had the straight) and the hammer (who paired his 7 on the flop and couldn't let go).

• J♥ J♠, under the gun

  I raise to $1, the button raises to $1.50, four of us go to the flop of T66 rainbow. I bet, one player folds, another raises, button re-raises, I cap it, they call, three players with $13 in the pot, and a J comes on the turn. I bet, get a raise and a call, I re-raise, middle position caps, button calls. River's a 2. I bet, middle raises, button calls, I raise, those two players call, and I take down a $34 pot with my full house, up against pocket aces (two pair) and KT (two pair).

• K♠ K♣, middle position

  One caller in front of me, I raise to $1.00. Cutoff raises to $1.50, button folds, small blind calls, original caller calls, I raise to $2. Three callers, four players to the flop, of Q♦ A♠ T♠. Checked to me, I bet 50¢, three callers, flop is 5♦. Checked to me, I bet $1, three callers, river is 6♠, for a possible flush. Checked to me (so there's two non-flushes), I bet $1, three callers, I take down an $18.50 pot with top pair, facing QJ (second pair), pocket nines (um.. fourth pair?), and Q7 (second pair weak kicker). Yeah, these guys went on my buddy list. I'll play them again any time.

I'd questioned a couple of weeks ago whether PokerTracker is worth the money. It is. Playing four simultaneous tables, I can put those tables on one monitor, have four PokerTracker windows on my other monitor, and by sorting the PokerTracker stats by the "voluntarily put money in pot percentage", I can tell at a glance if the person who just put in a bet is a loose or tight player. If he voluntarily puts in money 50% of the time, and I've got a hand, I'll call. If he puts it in 8% of the time, I've got to have a really good hand to call.

The sample size at those times is small, but still useful information. I also use it to find out who the fishiest players I've player are, then add them to my buddy list to find where they're playing. I'm sure blankman99 thinks I'm stalking him now, because I seem to show up at whatever table he plays (and busts out) at.