A tough 55 Party hand

[adanthar]

The flop gave me two ways to play this hand. I don't really want to say which way I picked yet, so one of the choices has been modified a little from the way the hand went down.
What do you do in either situation?

Villain in this hand is a bit loose. He's limped K9s in EP with 700 chips left in level 3, raised a minimum bet from the blind to 100 on a KT2 flop, then called the all in (for another 500 chips) and doubled up when the BB's T2 was counterfeited. On level 4, he CC'd a 300 all in and call in front with 9's and doubled up again when he hit a set. That's about the extent of the action thus far.

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t100 (6 handed)

UTG (t1895)
Hero (t2160)
CO (t1390)
Button (t1265)
SB (t240)
BB (t3050)

Preflop: Hero is MP with K/images/graemlins/heart.gif, K/images/graemlins/diamond.gif.
UTG calls t100, <font color="CC3333">Hero raises to t325</font>, CO folds, Button folds, SB folds, BB calls t225, UTG folds.

<font color="red">Variant 1 </font>
Flop: (t800) A/images/graemlins/heart.gif, 2/images/graemlins/heart.gif, 6/images/graemlins/heart.gif <font color="blue">(2 players)</font>
BB checks, <font color="CC3333">Hero bets t500</font>, <font color="CC3333">BB raises to t1000</font>, <font color="CC3333">Hero...</font>

<font color="red">Variant 2</font>
Flop: (t800) A/images/graemlins/heart.gif, 2/images/graemlins/heart.gif, 6/images/graemlins/heart.gif <font color="blue">(2 players)</font>
BB checks, <font color="CC3333">Hero checks.</font>

Turn: (t800) K/images/graemlins/spade.gif <font color="blue">(2 players)</font>
<font color="CC3333">BB bets t500</font>, <font color="CC3333">Hero...</font>

Again, I'm not saying which one of these is the real hand or what the BB had yet. What would you do here?

(2.5: In variant 1, assume you both have another 2000 chips apiece, you call the CR, the king hits the turn and BB goes all in. Do you call? In hand 2, assume you call, a blank hits the river and BB goes all in. Do you call?)

[ChrisV]

I like check behind on the flop. If I'm beaten, I want to take the free card so I can try and get out of this hand alive. If I'm not beaten, they are unlikely to have many outs so the free card shouldn't be too big a deal. Furthermore they may draw into a losing hand - hitting a flush with the Q /images/graemlins/heart.gif, say - or they may decide their nines which they were planning to fold are good.

You have to reraise allin when he checkraises the flop because you have correct odds with your flush draw, which is exactly why I like check on the flop.

I can only assume your questions about whether I call if I turn a set are jokes.

[tallstack]

In Variant 1, I would call the CR on the flop. I don't think that you have much folding equity by coming back over the top given your description of the Villain. I would expect that you are up against top pair in this scenario, and will need to hit one of your 11 outs.

In variant 2, I think that your K on the turn gives you a clear winner. I would be very surprised to be shown a flush here so any hand you are up against in this case (aces aside) would be drawing very thin. I think a call or min raise are options here. I would not want to push here since I think you have the opportunity to milk this pot with very little risk.

In variant 2.5, I would call any all-in.

Dave S

[Jman28]

You didn't adjust the pot size for varient two.

I think I push in both cases.

Definitely push on the turn if you hit the set.

On the flop it's push or fold. I put him on AJ but he could play this way with many hands. I push and close my eyes on the flop.

[adanthar]

I wound up betting. All my chips wind up all in here anyway, but I think I made a mistake in not checking behind.

The problem with just calling the checkraise is that on the turn, there were going to be 3600 chips in the middle counting his obligatory all in and I'd have 800 behind. After thinking a while, I bit the bullet, went all in and was called by QJ /images/graemlins/heart.gif. Oops.

The reason I posted this hand is because my friend, whom I asked about this hand five minutes later, said I should have called the flop CR *and then folded the turn even when a K hit*. (If a couple of you want to back me up on why this is pretty bad, please do so; I plan on showing him this thread later.) Obviously, I wasn't going to do that, but in retrospect it seems that given my loose read on him I should be taking the free card here.

So, I lose this hand no matter what, but if I don't hit my K or heart I think I have to check/fold the turn. I've too many chips behind to call off a second best hand.

Lesson already learned: I entered an 80 man $10 super qualifier today. The play was atrocious, abysmal, a...something horrible, so naturally every time I got QQ-KK an ace would hit the flop. The first time this happened, I got 3 callers of a 125 chip raise on level 2, the flop came AJx, the SB bet 100 into the 340 pot and was called in front of me, I folded my kings and after the third guy also called, the three checked down QJ, JT and 88.

I proceeded to keep check/folding every hand that missed (except for one, which luckily worked) and eventually came back from 250 chips to the point I didn't need to play a hand on the final table to qualify.

Before that hand, I think I'd have at least tried a semibluff, but against this type of player I've just realized why it's silly.

[jah0550]

The same thing happened to me a few days ago. I had AA and the flop came 3 clubs. I didn't have the A of clubs. I bet the pot and the villian went all-in over the top. I ended up calling and he showed 2 clubs. It is very difficult to lay down AA or KK with a board like that.

[NegativeEV]

Scenario one:
I would generally check behind here. TPFAP discusses not betting when last to act when you would "puke" if you are reraised. This seems to be a pretty perfect example. Take your free card and avoid the pain of facing a reraise which is the last thing you want.

Scenario two: I agree with the posters above- easy one.