KK live 5/10 Brantford.
10 handed 5/10 Limit at Brantford.
My Table position is excellent. I have just moved into position on the two calling stations. Between me and the calling stations is a solid player, Jasmine, a beautiful young Asian girl. I've been caught bluffing with a busted straight draw in the last half hour. I'm stuck about $200 and the table seems to neither fear nor respect me (this is a good thing). I've had been playing sensible cards preflop or the past 2 hours but I've decided to loosen up and play a lot more cards since I have great position on the calling stations.
Preflop:
The two calling stations limp in preflop under the gun. I've never seen either of them check raise preflop. The hand range I put them on is ... top 90% two cards.
Jasmine raises, I watch her face. She stares straight ahead with a hungry lioness expression... She really likes her hand.
I peek down and see KK.
What do you do? (call or raise) Pot = 5 small bets.
I raise.
Folded around to the calling stations.
Calling station 1 calls commenting, "What have I got myself into?"
Calling station 2 calls commenting, "I think he has a hand"
Jasmine 3 bets with zero hesitation.
Humm...
What do you do? Re-Re-raise or call. Pot=14 small bets.
Do I call here to get overcalls from the calling stations and since I may be behind or do I bet for value?
I 4 bet (Cap) since I've decided if they call 2 bets once they will call 2 bets again from the read at the table.
Everyone calls. Pot = 21 small bets
Flop comes QJ2 of three different suits.
Check, check, Jasmine raises. (pot=22 small bets)
What do you do? (fold, call or raise)
My Table position is excellent. I have just moved into position on the two calling stations. Between me and the calling stations is a solid player, Jasmine, a beautiful young Asian girl. I've been caught bluffing with a busted straight draw in the last half hour. I'm stuck about $200 and the table seems to neither fear nor respect me (this is a good thing). I've had been playing sensible cards preflop or the past 2 hours but I've decided to loosen up and play a lot more cards since I have great position on the calling stations.
Preflop:
The two calling stations limp in preflop under the gun. I've never seen either of them check raise preflop. The hand range I put them on is ... top 90% two cards.
Jasmine raises, I watch her face. She stares straight ahead with a hungry lioness expression... She really likes her hand.
I peek down and see KK.
What do you do? (call or raise) Pot = 5 small bets.
I raise.
Folded around to the calling stations.
Calling station 1 calls commenting, "What have I got myself into?"
Calling station 2 calls commenting, "I think he has a hand"
Jasmine 3 bets with zero hesitation.
Humm...
What do you do? Re-Re-raise or call. Pot=14 small bets.
Do I call here to get overcalls from the calling stations and since I may be behind or do I bet for value?
I 4 bet (Cap) since I've decided if they call 2 bets once they will call 2 bets again from the read at the table.
Everyone calls. Pot = 21 small bets
Flop comes QJ2 of three different suits.
Check, check, Jasmine raises. (pot=22 small bets)
What do you do? (fold, call or raise)
Comments
Raise postflop. If I am behind, it costs me a small bet to find out. If I am ahead, at most it costs me one small bet if both calling stations fold and Jasmine calls.
Preflop the only hand that beats you is AA. She loves her hand preflop. If you want to put her on that one hand go ahead... but that would be hard.
When you get a big pair you just keep betting and weeding down the feild. You have an over pair on the flop.... keep betting it all the way. Reraising preflop you might have pushed a caller off (or both) as now they are calling 2 very strong hands for $4 more instead of $2 more and only one very strong hand (not so in this case I guess as both called).
If you can't weed the field before the river step back a bit. The more people in the worse your odds that your Ks stand up. Weed everyone you can as early as you can.
It's hard to tell if she improved on the flop or not since she was so confident before.
I had KK 2:00am Friday night and raised it up with 3 callers. Flop comes A crap crap so I raised to test and got call, call reraise. I had to throw it down for a cost of $6. But if I have a big pair and no overs fall I am going to try to weed out the field by continually betting. If you get heads up and have a bad feeling you might then just call her raises instead of getting too much involved.
If she raises the turn AGAIN (after i assume betting every chance before this), then I call her down.
Also, Awesome, I think you need to re-think about 'WHY' you are making bets and raises.
I like to be against 1-2 people after the turn bet when I am sitting with a big pocket pair. If I know that she will likely follow me all the way I will bet every chance until and including the first bet after the turn. That is the first place I'd slow down but only if either:
i) She was still reraising.
ii) There were still more then 2 other people (including her) hanging around.
I don't bet to weed people out on many hands but a big pocket I want to be against only a couple people at the end.
If you raise the flop and she 3 bets do you fold or go into call down mode?
I was really torn about this hand ....
With no reads I always raise when there is a bet on my right and there are callers behind on the flop with any type of hand that I will be playing ...
Especially with a huge pot like this...
But I can't for the life of me think of a hand that I can beat that a solid player would have here...
Solid players just don't 3 bet with smaller pairs and AK, AJs, AQs or TT doesn't seem possible.
I mean what can she have that's a 3 bet preflop hand
AA 6 ways
KK 1 way
QQ 3 ways
JJ 3 ways
I really don't think she's on AK or AQ...
AKs 2 ways
AKo 6 ways
AQs 4 ways
AQo 12 ways.
So I convinced myself I'm playing my KK for set value ... (cringe) and I just called. I'm convinced that is is an awful blunder under most circumstances but I was sure I was way, way, behind ...
The calling stations both folded. (Lucky me)
Turn was an offsuit T
Board is QJ2(T) and I pick up a gutshot.
Jasmine Bets (pot=12 big bets)
Do you fold, call or raise?
I called, river is a 6.
Board is JT2 T 6.
Jasmine bets.
Pot is 15 big bets.
Do you fold, call or raise?
You post focuses on attempting to reduce the field. Thats something you usually can't do in limit on a high flop.
So preflop I'll bet every time to try to reduce the field. After the flop I will continue the same to try to drop another player or even two.
Super System II... page 232.... Limit Hold'em section written by Jennifer Harman... Playing High Pocket Pairs... very first line says to reduce the field
if you want to book battle, read SSHE, the part about how people overplay pocket pairs and land up giving away pot odds because they grow the pot too much.
Again when things get expensive on the turn I might slow down. But if I can get the callers to think it's going to cap from here on in and get them to fold after the flop I think that's a fair strategy. I can make them think it's going to cost them a lot more down road while only investing a little now. I'd certainly remember where the brake is though
I'm actually going to go get that book at lunch. You can never learn enough
Everything was screaming, "I'm beat" I mean what can she have that I can beat?? KK or AQs is unlikely here...
I made a payoff/crying call and was shown QQ for a set...
I'd like to progress to the point where I can trust my reads and fold in situations like this...
And they come up quite often that I'm still calling in big pots where I pretty much *Know* I'm beat but I'm not sharp enough to make the laydowns here.
Unless you feel Jasmine is a particularly tricky or aggressive player, most players will take one of two lines. Either they hammer the flop by 3 betting you and betting into you again on the turn or they flat call your raise on the flop and c/r you on the turn. Either way against most ABC players you can fold on the turn.
If Jasmine is the type to c/r raise good hands on the turn and you still want to go to showdown then you can also check behind on the turn.
Either way you must raise the flop to help define your hand.
Thanks for the advice!
I agree I played this hand poorly. I was in a must raise situation. This is a bad leak in my game I need to clean up.
So you bet and call if she reraises.
On the turn if you don't hit your K then you fold to a raise on the turn unless you pick up another draw.
Unlikely on the turn I bet if she 3 bets the flop. If she bets into me again on the turn whether I call or fold depends on my read of the player.
If she flat calls the flop then with the OESD on the turn I probably bet the turn because the chances I am ahead balance nicely with the chances she may c/r + the chances I may draw out on the river.
It's only a pair. In position I'd rather be aggressive early and then slow down the turn and river by trying to check behind if I am met with resistance on the flop because too many players at Brantford suffer from fancy play syndrome. If you feel you may be behind on the flop, a raise in position will often induce a player with a big hand like a set to flat call the raise and try for a c/r on the turn. An extra small bet on the flop can often get you to the river for free.
Well I wouldn't say almost never. I am value betting the turn in many cases against players that are incapable of folding any pair, especially those types that over value AK and also the small-med pp.
Basically will you play it for 3 to 4 bets to see the flop, 1-2 bets to see the turn, 1 big bet to see the river and 1 big bet to go to show down.
So when you see pocket Kings you have decided "will I play this hand for $50 to win maybe $150 to $200 depending on how many players are in the hand."