Right or wrong to be scared?

Hello,


I've been plucking up the courage to post a hand history for a while - so here we go. Was I right to be cautious here, or should I have taken the initiative? The guy I was up against had been hitting cards for fun and I was petrified of the straight. Thanks in advance for any help which you might be able to provide me with.


JessGame #114358253 - $1/$2 Hold'em - 2001/09/30-14:13:02 (CST)

Table "Cayman" (real money) -- Seat 9 is the button

Seat 1: darklight ($559.25 in chips)

Seat 2: Jessica X ($144.50 in chips)

Seat 3: monsternuts ($19 in chips)

Seat 4: YoBoY ($12.75 in chips)

Seat 5: zooey ($113 in chips)

Seat 6: ALEX23 ($57.25 in chips)

Seat 7: Mirageview ($40 in chips)

Seat 9: 1ijack ($102.50 in chips)

Seat 10: Sixshooter ($128.50 in chips)

Sixshooter: Post Small Blind ($0.50)

darklight: Post Big Blind ($1)

monsternuts: Sit out

Mirageview: Post ($1)

Dealing...

Dealt to Jessica X [ As ]

Dealt to Jessica X [ Ac ]

Jessica X: Raise ($2)

YoBoY : Fold

zooey : Fold

ALEX23 : Fold

Mirageview: Fold

1ijack : Fold

Sixshooter: Fold

darklight: Call ($1)

*** FLOP *** : [ Ks 8h 9h ]

darklight: Bet ($1)

Jessica X: Raise ($2)

darklight: Call ($1)

*** TURN *** : [ Ks 8h 9h ] [ Jd ]

darklight: Bet ($2)

Jessica X: Call ($2)

*** RIVER *** : [ Ks 8h 9h Jd ] [ 4c ]

darklight: Bet ($2)

Jessica X: Call ($2)

*** SUMMARY ***

Pot: $16.75 | Rake: $0.75

Board: [ Ks 8h 9h Jd 4c ]

darklight lost $8 (showed hand) [ Ah 5h ] (high card ace)

Jessica X bet $8, collected $16.75, net +$8.75 (showed hand) [ As Ac ] (a pair of aces)

monsternuts didn't bet

YoBoY didn't bet (folded)

zooey didn't bet (folded)

ALEX23 didn't bet (folded)

Mirageview lost $1 (folded)

1ijack didn't bet (folded)

Sixshooter lost $0.50 (folded)

I would not be scared in this situation because your opponent bet into you on the flop. It is a rare player that does that with a gutshot straight and no pair or even overcards. Their bet is more consistent with a high pair who is trying to get a read on the raiser by betting or someone getting fancy with a high flush draw. When they bet again on the turn, I would raise again. If they three bet, then I would slow down.


Not to be too critical, but if you routinely slow down with very good hands because you are scared of the nuts you will have to face this kind of pressure routinely. Observant players will realize that they can control how much they have to pay for a hand by turning you into the caller instead of them. Be aggressive. You will lose some bigger pots when they do suck out but the ones like this, when you have a good hand, will be bigger too.


Also, if you do think your opponent has the nuts, think back about their play thus far and see if it is consistent with what thye need to be holding to have the nuts. In this case, would this player call a raise with QT and bet into the raiser on a flop of K98, making their hand KQT98? Not very likely, IMO.


Good luck.


KJS

The way he played the hand, it would have been more likely that he held KJ than QT, but T7 is possible. Note that you would have made the same amount if you had raise the turn, since he would have called with the flush draw, but wouldn't have bet or called on the river.

You played it fine, although possibly for the wrong reasons. I would not be scared of a straight here, but I would expect my opponent to have two pair, probably KJ. Just calling down is fine. If, as here, your opponent is drawing, you lose nothing. If you are beating him and he will call (if he has AK, for example) then you lose a bet. However raising the turn is not a good idea because he will reraise with top two pair and you will have to call because you have 8 outs. This means you will need to be winning on the turn versus a call-down hand like AK 2/3 of the time to make a raise correct.


Chris