A learning hand from last night

2 lessons learned on one hand. 10c/20c NL on GC as usual.

I get AK in LP after several limpers, raise to $1.00. I get one caller.

Flop comes Kxx. The guy bets out, I raise, he calls.

Turn is another x. He bets out, I raise, he calls.

River is another x. Board hasn't paired, all smallish cards, no likely straights, no flushes.

He bets out again, about 1/5 of the pot. I think about raising again, but I can't imagine what the guy could be betting with again after being raised twice. He may have two pair or something. If I raise and he re-raises big, I feel like I would have to fold, and I don't want to take that chance. So I just call.

He was playing KQ and was dominated the whole way.

Two lessons learned.

#1: DO NOT PLAY KQ AGAINST A RAISE. You could be dominated easily, and you feel like you have a good hand but you're basically dead. Everybody knows that except the fish. Glad this guy didn't know it. And now that I have seen this hand, I know it at a much deeper place in myself than I did before.

#2: Blocking bets really can work. I don't know if that's what this guy intended, but his smallish bet on the river sure worked as a blocking bet. It put a little scare into me, and with just a decent, not a great hand, I had to just call. If he had checked to me I would have bet more than that to him, and it would have cost him more to see the river. Anyway, what I'm thinking is this: A BLOCKING BET CAN WORK IF YOU PUT THE OTHER GUY ON A DECENT BUT NOT GREAT HAND.