Could anyone advise on how I could have played this hand better.

[guinnie]

I was wondering if someone could give me a few suggestions on how I played this hand incorrectly and how I could improve. Any feedback would be appreciated. Thank you.

#Game No : 977062468
***** Hand History for Game 977062468 *****
NL Hold'em $10 Buy-in + $1 Entry Fee Trny:6023079 Level:3 Blinds(25/50) - Wednesday, September 22, 21:38:06 EDT 2004
Table Table 11101 (Real Money)
Seat 3 is the button
Total number of players : 7
Seat 2: guinnie ( $665 )
Seat 3: flashback94 ( $1055 )
Seat 5: blakelockr ( $1685 )
Seat 6: skimmazterJ ( $1655 )
Seat 7: edithk ( $650 )
Seat 9: WoChi ( $1415 )
Seat 10: raggsdude ( $875 )
Trny:6023079 Level:3
Blinds(25/50)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to guinnie [ Ks 9s ]
edithk folds.
WoChi folds.
raggsdude folds.
guinnie calls [50].
flashback94 raises [150].
blakelockr folds.
skimmazterJ folds.
guinnie calls [100].
** Dealing Flop ** [ Kh, 8s, 4c ]
guinnie checks.
flashback94 bets [250].
guinnie is all-In.
flashback94 calls [265].
** Dealing Turn ** [ 8d ]
** Dealing River ** [ 5c ]
flashback94 shows [ 6c, 7s ] a straight, four to eight.
guinnie shows [ Ks, 9s ] two pairs, kings and eights.
guinnie finished in seventh place.
flashback94 wins 1405 chips from the main pot with a straight, four to eight.

[reecelights]

Raise 3x BB PF. If he raises, you're in trouble, but you fold and it saves you 500 chips. If he calls, you check the flop even with the K.

K9s is usually not a great hand to be playing, but in this case you are a 3-2 favorite over any random hand. If you are going to play it (and you probably should in this case) you need to be raising with it. By calling the BB senses weakness. This is exacerbated when you checked the flop. Had you raised PF, he probably would not have played the hand. If you knew his style and were afraid of betting into him for fear of a tough reraise, you definitely should have bet the flop and taken the pot down right there.

His play on this hand, especially his call after your raise was awful. Your hand was 60/40 over a random hand and a 65-35 over his actual cards. You were 80/20 on the flop. Don't get me wrong, the check-raise was not a bad play here with top pair (I'm talking actuality right now and not theory), but don't forget players who habitually bluff are quick to assume others are bluffing them.

In short, don't get cute with marginal hands. If you play them from late position, play them strong.

[ddubois]

Inducing a player to bluff and potentially pot commit himself obviously eliminates the fold equity you have available to you by leading out. What percentage of the time will he fold if you led out pushing? Let's say it's 100%, which means the EV of leading out is the size of the pot currently, or 375. Inducing him to go all-in by check-raising him, with this particular mathcup, is: .81*(375+250+265) - .19*(250+265), or +623 EV. With other matchups, you might not be so far ahead, like versus Ah8h, your EV for inducing allin is +550. What if he doesn't fold all of the time you push? Let's say he does have Ah8h (because I think 67o he's folding for sure). If he folds half of the time, your EV is =0.5*375 + 0.5*(0.76*(375+250+265)-0.24*(250+265)) = +463. So this is a risk/reward scenario; you clearly gain more value trapping, but your "death rate" will occur doubly frequent by trapping. Is the differential great enough to be worth the increased variance on your survival rate? Is 550 that much better than 463? Enough to be worth the increased risk of busting out? To be honest, I'm not sure what the "right" answer is.

PS: Other people might have some ideas about pre-flop, I won't comment on that area of the hand.

[ChrisV]

Fold the hand preflop. You should pretty much never limp at the 25/50 blind level, and certainly not with K9s. Although you caught him trying to steal, you were in trouble vs a lot of raising hands - and that's on a GOOD flop for you. Most flops you will be check-folding.