Nightmares and Dreamland!

Had a bit of a session at the tables last night, the longest session I have played for some time. Cathy was in bed, feeling the effects of the several dozen babies she is carrying (ha ha) and the possibility of twins is increasing as much as her waistline. We both seem to feel the opposite, she is in dread, whereas I think it would be fantastic. We shall see, scan in 4 weeks when all will be revealed!

Anyway, poker. Began quite brightly, taking my $130 up to $160 and I felt I was playing well, stealing a lot from the 2 passive players at the table. Them got dealt KK 4 times in about 40 hands. First time I folded to a big re-raise on an A high flop, then the next 3 occasions, ran into AA each time. Not sure what the odds of this are, but getting dealt KK 4 times in 40 hands must be high, seeing 3 of them run into AA on a 6 seater table must be substantially higher.
To make matters worse, the flops were low making me sure it was high pair v high pair - alas I was the underdog each time and 2.5 buys-in were gone :-(

Then, making the sensible (not) decision that, if I stepped up to the 50c BB level, I'd make back the money I lost much quicker. Why do these things seem so sensible at the time, yet so stupid when you think about it afterwards?

Anyway, not sure if this is the biggest pot I've been involved in on cash games, but certainly up there! Maybe there was one poor call on my part during this, but anyway, it went like this:

I'm on the BB with Q 10 sooted. First player to act raises it to 1.50 (3x bb) and everyone round the table calls. My decision, I think, is an easy call. $8.50 in the pot already - another $1 to me seemed good odds, so I call.
Flop is Ah Kh 7d. I'm first to act and did consider taking a stab at this - nut flush (and royal) and nut str8 draw - but worried that AK is out there and could get a big raise that I couldn't call.
Anyway, I check and a player in mid-position bets 5$. 2 callers and I think for a while before making the decision to call. 5$ into almost 20$ with (assuming no cards in hands) with 13 outs - and at the time I thought this justified a call, certainly the implied odds if one player had trips or 2 pair (as I suspected). Thoughts?
Anyway, one more caller after me - and I get a bit hazy on the bet sizes from now on (apart from the final pot!) so these are approximates.

Turn was a Jc - I'd hit the nuts.
Problem here is I had a feeling one player had AK, one AQ - but possibly trips. If I push and get a caller and the board pairs on the river, I'm fucked - and my notes on these players indicate that they won't be folding 2 pair let alone trips, so I check. 1st player bets 10$, one folds and 2nd player raises to 20$.
This is getting tasty so I flat call and see player 1 raise another 20$, one caller and I flat call also.
River was a 2c.

At this point, I'm pretty happy a heart didn't hit the river, as I doubt the following would have happened if the obvious flush was out there. But, more importantly, the river doesn't pair the board so I have the nuts. I decided to bet 10$ here - hoping to look a little weak and maybe a feeble steal attempt, player 1 pushes all in, player 2 calls.
I have the most chips now, so I push all in and player 2 calls after some thought.
One player had Trip 7's and the other had AK. My reads were spot on, which I was quite pleased about - but not as pleased as the 233$ pot that came my way!

This pushed my BR up to 301$ - which I'm chuffed to bits about, especially with my mood over recent weeks. Hopefully, this is the beginning of a good run and the knowledge from the 4 poker books I've read are having an effect.

Or am I just damn lucky?