MTT hand

Unknown

This hand just happened a minute ago in the Stars $150 MTT.  I was up against another above-average stack... didn't really want to go crazy with the raising. 

PokerStars Game #3777911382: Tournament #18469890, Hold'em No Limit - Level V (75/150) - 2006/01/27 - 22:30:21 (ET)
Table '18469890 37' Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: bk25 (2015 in chips)
Seat 2: Hickboy (7890 in chips)
Seat 3: all aces (6475 in chips)
Seat 4: cjoe425 (8185 in chips)
Seat 6: Wilsen (2005 in chips)
Seat 7: xxTheNewxx (7605 in chips)
Seat 8: RskyBznes (1935 in chips)
Seat 9: cjh102977 (7187 in chips)
xxTheNewxx: posts small blind 75
RskyBznes: posts big blind 150
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to all aces [Qd Kc]
cjh102977: folds
bk25: folds
Hickboy: raises 300 to 450
all aces: calls 450
cjoe425: folds
Wilsen: folds
xxTheNewxx: folds
RskyBznes: folds
*** FLOP *** [Kh Td Jh]
Hickboy: bets 600
all aces: calls 600
*** TURN *** [Kh Td Jh] [4d]
Hickboy: bets 1200
all aces: calls 1200
*** RIVER *** [Kh Td Jh 4d] [3d]
Hickboy: checks

Bet, or check behind? And, did I play the hand too passively?

QueenNine

Flush chasers need to pay!

Bet.

Unless of course you put him on the ultimate starting hand, Q9, then you are toast, just like all the other non believers.

SirWatts

I would usually fold preflop, but given that you called i think your line is good. You could easily be beat and if you raise at some point you may very well get yourself pot committed against a better hand or have to lay down your draw to a push. Seems like a good time to try to control the pot size. After you flat call twice he may be very worried about you trapping him and check some strong hands, and not always call with some weaker ones we beat, so I don't think I would value bet the river. I don't think we get him to fold hands that beat us often enough by throwing out a big bet either though so Idon't like betting as a bluff, though i think if he really had a very strong hand on this board he would be making larger bets to push us off a draw so maybe I shouldn't be so worried about being beat here. It sort of looks like he has a combination pair and draw hand too. I'm still checking behind though despite these ramblings.

Irah

I check behind because Im a wimp, but if He has a hand like AJ. AT or maybe even 99 , you may be able to put in a value bet and get paid off. I dont think you have to wory about him check raising the river. But It also could be a sitiuation where the only thing u can beat is a bluff, but I doubt that. Now that I am thinking this out, I am sure you could value bet the river for 1200. and he calls and flips over AJ. The only other hand I could see him doing this with is AK, possibly if he is tight, and decided to shell up and check call the river, just in case he thougt u were playing a big hand slowly.

Unknown

OK, so the concensus seems to be that calling a raise with KQo is not the best play.  I'll agree with that, but sometimes I do it anyways.

I'm glad nobody hated the fact that I didn't raise the flop or the turn.  I thought somebody might.... SirWatts is bang-on with my thinking in this hand (whether that's a good thing or a bad thing is up to you to decide): seems like a good time to control the pot size.  Or at least, not get myself pot committed against a monster by making a raise and opening myself up to a big re-raise.

On the river, I just checked behind.  I think that checking behind is OK, but a value bet is probably in order here.  Very few people go for river check-raises, especially in heads-up pots, especially after their opponent hasn't shown a whole lot of aggression in the hand to that point, which means that he will probably check if checked to.  In other words, he shouldn't expect me to bet on the river given the action of the hand to that point, which means he's probably not going for a river check-raise.

So where does that leave us?  Well, he either has a missed draw, or he has a pair that is probably beaten but might call off 1000 or so to find out.  I should have charged him that 1000 or so...  He had AJ (good guess Irah) and I took it down.  I hate missing bets.  The reason I didn't bet the river was because I could specifically picture him holding AK but being deterred by the straight possiblilty and the runner runner flush possibility and the weirdness of having his opponent just flat-call all of his bets. 

Putting him on one particular hand like AK was seeing monsters under the bed though... there were many other hands he could have had that would have paid off a moderate river bet, and even if he had AK, he probably wouldn't have check-raised so the damage would have been containable.

Thanks for the feedback!