Wednesday, January 11, 2012

How not to play kings




Stratosphere last night. After a bad start, I had clawed my way back to a little on the plus side, sitting at about $220, when I found pocket kings on the button. Four people limped, then the guy on my immediate right raised to $15. He was absolutely the tightest player at the table, and this was the first time I had seen him be the pre-flop raiser, so naturally I had to be somewhat worried that he had pocket aces. On the other hand, this raise was larger than the table average (which was $8-$10), suggesting something more like jacks or queens.

Given his table image and the raise size, I thought that I would probably be his only opponent going to the flop, even without putting in a reraise. I would normally three-bet with kings, but I had not three-bet even once so far in this session (no premium hands), which meant that doing so now would essentially be playing with my cards face up. I decided to smooth-call instead, for dual purposes: It would disguise my strength and it would allow me to see if an ace flopped and re-assess Mr. Tight's demeanor before committing a lot of chips against a player for whom aces were a large part of his range. I think that reraising will win me about $20 most of the time, and lose me the amount of the raise when he has aces, though probably not my whole stack, because this is a player against whom I could fold kings if he four-bets it.

I was horrified to see the big blind call, followed by three of the limpers, meaning that six of us were seeing a flop with the pot already swollen to about $90. To use the technical term, this situation kind of sucked.

Flop was 9-6-2 rainbow, about as dry and unfrightening as they can come. I was not worried that Mr. Tight had hit a set, though I still had to be concerned that his pocket pair was one pip bigger than mine. Everybody checked to him, and he bet $35. I considered raising, but I was still in the dark about where I stood. I decided to be cautious and see if one of the players in earlier position was preparing a check-raise. I called.

Three of them folded, but I hated seeing who did not--it was the trappiest player at the table. As a general rule, the bigger the pot, the more you want to take it down immediately rather than trying to make it even larger and risk losing everything. I think that few players who had flopped a set in this situation would do anything other than either lead-out bet or check-raise. One of the few who would be daring enough to check-call here as a trap--from out of position, against two solid opponents--was this guy. Two pair was unlikely, as I didn't think any hand that could have flopped two pair would have put in $15 pre, and there were essentially no draws, so Mr. Trappy either had a set or one pair. If one pair, it was most likely top pair with A-9 suited, possibly pocket 8s or 7s or maybe even 10s.

Fourth street was a four and a second club. Mr. Trappy checked, which didn't tell me anything. Mr. Tight also checked. This didn't tell me much, either. Certainly with A-K he might have taken one shot at the pot on the flop and then shut down. But he could easily do the same with A-A or any other big pair. My table image was solid. I had never shown down a weak hand, and had hit two flopped sets and one flopped boat on my way back to even, all of which did get shown. Mr. Tight might therefore very reasonably fear that I was the one slow-playing a monster and check even aces.

I definitely needed to bet here, both for value and for information, but I didn't think it needed to be large. I settled on $50. Mr. Trappy pondered a long time, but finally mucked, which relieved most of my concern about this hand. Now it all came down to whether Mr. Tight had aces or one of his few other possible holdings. He thought a while and then called. Again, this didn't sort out the situation much for me, except to rule out A-K. I was either one rank behind or between one and three ranks ahead (or, as an outside possibility, tied, with him holding the other two kings). His range was now almost certainly down to one of the top five pocket pairs, and I was beating three of them.

River came an offsuit queen. I mentally winced a bit, because of the obvious possibility that Mr. Tight had just gone from loser to winner. He checked, with noticeably more hesitation than he had exhibited on the turn, which further fueled my anxiety. Now to me--check or bet? I decided that there were still twice as many hands with which he might well pay off a smallish value bet (namely, jacks and tens) as there were hand with which he would call and win (just aces), so I pushed out another stack of $50. He mucked within a few seconds. I still can't say with any confidence which pair he was throwing away. It easily could have been aces, though my best guess is jacks, with tens close behind in likelihood.

The net result? I profited about $195 with pocket kings, without improving, without showing my hand, against five opponents. I find that rather remarkable. It was, of course, extremely lucky, and the whole thing could have gone horribly wrong in about a million different ways. But none of the land mines exploded where they might have, and I lived to tell the tale.

11 comments:

Josie said...

What an unexpected happy ending. I was wincing in anticipation.

Anonymous said...

If Mr Tight comes out and fires on the river say, $75-100, do you call? I think you are correct putting him on jacks...I think he calls $50 on the river with aces.

Lindy99

Rakewell said...

I don't know. Probably depends on how confident he looks about it.

sevencard2003 said...

theres no way he folded aces there

Anonymous said...

Prob JJ maybe TT, not sure if you had Kc but if not - maybe AcKc.

Like ur bet/fold line OTR get vale from JJ and maybe TT from the kinda guy that may be tight as he'll pre flop but also plays so little hands this is his first premo, u r in position damn let's take a look kinda guy.

F5Boi

PS lol tbc

dmbfan41cnLV said...

Fantastic commentary... loved reading through your thought processes and analysis on every street. Delighted to log on to your blog and see a hand history post!

Hope all is well and thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

Grump, thanks for sharing. A few thoughts:

preflop: With that many limpers and your relative position being poor preflop, you should 3bet. (you are effectively in the worst position acting first preflop after the raiser, and on the flop if the original better Cbets, which is likely)I know you have the button, but position is also relative here, if you anticipated the c bet and even 1 or 2 callers, I think that is a good reason to raise.

the turn: "Fourth street was a four and a second club. Mr. Trappy checked, which didn't tell me anything. Mr. Tight also checked. This didn't tell me much, either . . . he could easily do the same with A-A or any other big pair. My table image was solid . . . I definitely needed to bet here, both for value and for information."

He is not folding AA. had you already decided to fold to a shove here? I agree with the value bet however, you have a lot of leverage with another ~130 behind.

river: nice value bet!

Anonymous said...

Yes, the only part that Grump was cleary wrong in the analysis was the tight player folding Aces for $50. I agree with TBC "There's no way he folded aces there."

Rob said...

How do you do it? I mean really, how do you win a hand with pocket Kings? Last month I couldn't do that to save my life, any way I played them, I lost. Grrr.

But great write up on the hand. Really enjoyed it, nice insight. Very good read.

You say his PF raise was higher than table average, making you think he might not have Ace's. But with four limpers already in front of him, wouldn't his PF raise make sense if he did have AA?

I agree tho, he wouldn't have folded Aces there.

What is the cash game action like at Stratosphere now? How many games? Was it 1/2 or 1/3?

Glad to read a happy ending, nice!

The Neophyte said...

With his river hesitation, I wonder if he was able to lay down AQ there or was he thinking of betting his JJ but was afraid you had AQ? Nice river bet, not sure I could have done that.

Anonymous said...

Enjoy your blog! I'm with gulf coast poker.net. Check us out. Your play with the kings, liked how you put us in your shoes and I understood why you did what you did, but I think he had AK and reacted to the queen because he thought you called with AQ, I don't think he had you on kings. He called the turn because he probably thought the same about the trappy guy but the cost was enought to try to hit, according to him, 3 kings and 3 aces. So he became passive after you and trappy called the flop bet, saw you bet out trappy and felt priced in with AK on the turn. The queen hits and he can't call a bet because he put you on AQ. I don't think he had aces.

Goondingy