I Actually Won

We have a steady 10 and sometimes 11 for our house game but sometimes we change it around a little and a niece of Cathys is one of those who joins us when she is around. Unfortunately she had suffered some ill health of late but thankfully a recent transplant has greatly improved things for her. As often happens when someone you know benifits like this Liam and Cathy ran the half marathon in Dublin last weekend to raise funds for a transplant charity. SO the pay in at our last house game went towards their fundraising. Normally this would lead to a very very loose game but with league points on offer it was amazingly steady for a freeroll. Now having said that our games are never tight. James (the kid) raises or reraises the first hand every night blind. As can be expected he frequently gets called or reraised and pots build even on the first blind level. True to form he open raised blind last week got two callers I'm big blind and look down and big slick. I motion to push all in and say the same followed by a laugh before retreating but the kid quickly delares the verbal bet binding( rightly) so I push them out the full way this time. Now he looks at his cards and quickly folds and the rest follow, a winning start.
The kid is aggressive but he was running into hands on the night and made an early exit which seemed to open up a few more chances for me to make moves and I had to. For the 3 hours we played I got two pocket pairs both sixies and 3 big slicks but I was hitting a few flops and got away with a few bluffs when needed. I flopped trips holding Q3 and it turned into a house on the turn to take down a big pot. Later when it was down to the last 3 Jim, Liam and myself I held the same hand but my stack was begining to drop and I was ready to make a play from the BB. Jim folded the button and Liam made a standard raise. I called not that worried about my hand. Flop is A 2 5 rainbow left me with an inside straight draw but Liam bet the pot so I should have left it go but as I said I wasn't playing my hand, I liked the flop as I would have called Liam's raise preflop with an ace small so I am calling here to reraise all in on the turn no matter what comes. Well wouldn't you know it a four comes on the turn to give me the straight!!!!!! Liam again bet out and my first instinct is to flat call with my big hand but then I decide to stick to the original plan and pushed. The only difference is now I am hoping Liam actually has a hand he can't let go, but "go" he did. Still I won a good pot and Liam soon knocked out Jim to leave us heads up. I soon got the chip lead and never gave it up finally taking it down when I limped in (not for the first time) with Big slick, Liam moved all in and of course I called. He turned over a K9--perfect first card on the flop a--- 9---but I got my ACE ON THE RIVER.