What's your move?

[kayaker]

In a fairly short period (~35 hands), I had tagged UTG+1 as a rock, with no PFR and 15% VIP.

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $1 BB (10 handed)

BB ($105.26)
UTG ($43.5)
UTG+1 ($57.6)
UTG+2 ($52.25)
MP1 ($120.2)
Hero ($73.2)
MP3 ($55.5)
CO ($85.7)
Button ($32.65)
SB ($55.55)

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with K/images/graemlins/club.gif, K/images/graemlins/heart.gif. SB posts a blind of $0.5.
UTG folds, UTG+1 calls $1, UTG+2 folds, MP1 calls $1, <font color="CC3333">Hero raises to $3</font>, MP3 folds, CO folds, Button folds, SB (poster) folds, BB folds, <font color="CC3333">UTG+1 raises to $5</font>, MP1 folds, Hero calls $2.

Flop: ($12.50) 5/images/graemlins/heart.gif, 6/images/graemlins/diamond.gif, 2/images/graemlins/diamond.gif <font color="blue">(2 players)</font>
<font color="CC3333">UTG+1 bets $5</font>, <font color="CC3333">Hero raises to $10</font>, UTG+1 calls $5.

Turn: ($32.50) J/images/graemlins/diamond.gif <font color="blue">(2 players)</font>
UTG+1 checks, <font color="CC3333">Hero bets $20</font>, UTG+1 is all-In ($42.60)...

Results in white:
<font color="white"> Hero folds
Final Pot: $92.10 </font>

[Tilt]

IMO you should have been more aggressive. 35 hands is too short a period to really be afraid that he has AA. I would have pushed preflop to his reraise. If not, I would have pushed to that weak flop bet he made.

Based on the action I would say he has JJ. His flop bet was weak, then he hits his trips and check raises. Still, I am not sure I fold to his push there given how big the pot is.

[amoeba]

I would have folded on the turn like you did but I would have rereraised preflop.

[kayaker]

Yeah, I wondered if not coming over the top of his reraise PF was a problem. When he limp-reraised, though, I was immediately concerned about AA. This was a rock, at a fairly aggressive table, so that play would work a lot.

His 1/2 pot bet, then call on the flop made me also consider A/images/graemlins/diamond.gifK/images/graemlins/diamond.gif.

I must confess, I never thought about JJ. But I figured both AA and AK had me either dominated or drawing dead. The bet on the turn was a semi-bluff. He check-raised me (also the first time he had done that), so it seemed to me that my fears were confirmed.

Why push to his RR PF? I've got &gt;$70. Why not just RR to around $15? That should be big enough to get him out w/ anything other than a premium hand, and I'm not risking it all when there's a decent chance he has AA. (Yes, I HATE a quick push PF that's 10x the pot. The best I can hope for on average is for the other guy to fold. If I'm that much of a favorite, I'd rather let the guy call a more normal bet and then take him on the flop. Seems to be a higher EV play to me.)

[amoeba]

yes I would reraise to $15.

[Tilt]

A few thoughts:

- I try not to worry too much about KK crashing into AA online. If I am in a tourney with my life in the line, sure I'd worry. But in online cash games I think you will lose a lot of opportunity cost trying to figure out when you are up against AA. Same thing with flush over flush on a 3 suited board. In live games, or when you have a few hundred hands with a player online, you might use a read and back off. But otherwise IMO you just roll forward and assume it won't happen often enough to make up for the money lost from squeezing out the people who call with QQ, JJ, or even AT in this situation. Maybe at these limits that is a flawed philosophy?

- I agree pushing preflop is a bad idea, though - I wasnt looking at the size of the stacks. But I would make a big reraise, and then when nothing scary on the flop comes I would push.

- Suppose you reraise preflop, and he comes all-in. What would you do then? Given your read I would be worried, but with only 35 hands the timer would run a long way before I decided. With that sample he may have only been looking at rags.

[phisfliuch]

Your puny raise after two limpers says "call me" and is begging for a reraise from the five other players yet to be heard from. How many opponents do you want with Kings? One, at most. Raise the pot. Now if UTG+1 reraised to the point of commitment, you might think he has AA and lay it down. If he calls, and you get this flop, bet enough to put him to a decision right there. There would be 25ish in the pot and he'd be down to 42, assuming he checks the flop, so bet 20ish if he's a thinking player, and all-in if he's not.

Oh, and his limp-reraise to 5 after you raise two limpers to 3 doesn't qualify as a sign of AA. Both stink of fear.

[TakeMeToTheRiver]

I don't think I would reraise pre-flop, but your raise pre-flop is way too small. Is this your standard raise? If it is, I think it has to be increased when you already have two limpers before you. I think the proper pre-flop raise would have been at least $6.

Your min-raise on the flop was also way too small. Make it pot-size -- then his nut flush draw can consider folding.

I would probably have closed my eyes and called the raise on the turn...

[Raiser]

Unless you have a great read on this guy (I don't think 35 hands is enough to make that kind of read), you have to call the turn raise. You're getting 95:22 on your call so you only have to win this pot around 20% of the time. I think that's reasonable with your holding at these tables. Close your eyes and throw the $22 in the pot.

Hope it worked out for you /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[kayaker]

Yes, 3xBB is my standard raise. I don't like to vary my raises, but I might consider something more like 3xBB+1BB/limper. In this case, that would be a raise to $5.

I was a little concerned about the flop min-raise, too. Thanks for mentioning that. I guess if he calls $17 there, I can feel confident that I'm beat when the third diamond comes on the turn and check behind, then fold to what would be a sure bet out on the river.

I seriously thought about calling his turn push, but I didn't see how I had the odds. I was 90% sure he had me beat, and I was getting 4-1 to call. With him all in, it made sense mathematically to fold.