sometimes I get lucky, too

Playing in a 10/20 game with a 1/2 kill, a middle position player opened the pot with a raise. It was a kill hand, so the action was 15/30.
The player who posted the kill folded, the small blind called, and I looked down to pocket 3s.
I don't love taking small pairs against an open raiser, especially short-handed. I also had only been playing with the raiser for about an hour, so didn't have a great read on his play. I knew he was pretty tight and a fairly solid player.
It might have been a bad play, but since my call would close the action, and since I was 'getting a discount,' I decided to see the flop, and called the extra $20 (my big blind was $10, but since this was a 'kill hand' the pre-flop raise made it $30 to go). The pot was laying me $75 to $20, and I had a feeling the raiser was on AK -- unless an Ace or a King hit the flop, I'd be in a good position to steal the pot with my little pair.

The flop came J, T, 8, rainbow. The small blind checked and I fired. The pre-flop raiser popped it, and the small blind called the two bets cold.

All of a sudden, I hated my pre-flop call, hated my bet on the flop. But, with $170 in the pot, I was getting pot odds of more than 10 to 1 on calling and seeing the turn. I put the small blind on a 9, sitting with an open straight draw and playing it a little timidly. The raiser could have Ace King, and be raising with overcards and a gut-shot to the nuts, looking to get a free turn if he missed.

I called the $15.

The turn was a wonderful 3. The small blind checked, and before my brain could stop me, my arm bet $30. If I had thought about it, I might have gone for a check-raise. But, since I put the raiser on a possible AK, betting and denying the free card was good, too.

He raised! Uh oh! The small blind mulled and thought, called TIME, and thought some more before folded (he later told me that he did have a 9 for an open-ended straight draw; given that the raiser might have AK, and that I might have flopped the straight, he decided he was drawing too thin to cold-call 2 bets).

Now I revised my thinking: did he flop a set? It was very possible. It would cost me to find out, but given the general loose action in my game, folding a set is not a profitable play, so I called.

The turn was a 4. I checked. He checked behind me! He turned over pocket Queens -- my set of threes was good!

He was shocked at my holding. I was shocked I won the pot, catching a two-outer on the turn with a very scary board. My opponent went on tilt, and the game got better, and everyone started giving me more action, which also helped my bottom line. It turned out to be a very nice session, all because sometimes, I get lucky, too.