Pot Too Small To Play Marginal Hand This Aggressively?

[PokerProdigy]

Party Poker 1/2 Hold'em (8 handed) converter (http://www.selachian.com/tools/bisonconverter/hhconverter.cgi)

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with K/images/graemlins/heart.gif, 2/images/graemlins/heart.gif. Hero posts a blind of $1.
<font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, <font color="#CC3333">UTG+1 raises</font>, <font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, Hero (poster) calls, <font color="#666666">4 folds</font>.

Flop: (5.50 SB) 8/images/graemlins/heart.gif, 3/images/graemlins/club.gif, 2/images/graemlins/diamond.gif <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
<font color="#CC3333">UTG+1 bets</font>, <font color="#CC3333">Hero raises</font>, <font color="#CC3333">UTG+1 3-bets</font>, <font color="#CC3333">Hero caps</font>, UTG+1 calls.

Turn: (6.75 BB) A/images/graemlins/club.gif <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
UTG+1 checks, Hero checks.

River: (6.75 BB) K/images/graemlins/club.gif <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
UTG+1 checks, <font color="#CC3333">Hero bets</font>, UTG+1 calls.

Final Pot: 8.75 BB

[yellowjack]

Yes.

Fold preflop, you have Kxs, a group 7 hand. K and no kicker. It's a pretty poor hand.
On the flop you only have bottom pair with a BDFD, why are you capping?
Good check on the turn, I think it's pretty easy to recognize that UTG+1 will call you down.
Good value bet on the river.

[CourtJester]

Fold preflop i think as u have no callers in front of u. Raising flop seemed ok but capping doesnt seem good at all and villan seems to like his hand. After turn, seems like villan is on JJ or QQ and the river supports that again. River bet is fine as now you're ahead of his likely possible hands. Are my thoughts correct??

[MagicFlea]

I disagree with raising this flop. The only reason you raise with low pair and some kind of draw (here overcard + BDFD) is to protect your hand, but there is no one to protect it against. When he reraises he certainly has a PP and you are behind. I probably would have called the flop and assuming he bet the turn, folded there.

I also agree with folding preflop.

[KaiShin]

I don't like your play on any street here.

Why are you calling PF?

Why are you capping the flop?

Why are you checking a scare card on the turn, if you're trying to muscle him out of the pot (which your flop play clearly indicates)?

OK, the river bet isn't too bad.

[PokerProdigy]

You like the fold preflop even though I am posting a late position big blind?

[KaiShin]

I'd prefer to have at least one CC'er in with me if I'm going to call this EP raise.

[ArturiusX]

This is fishy.

Think of it this way; imagine UTG's surprise when you show K2. Pretend you were in his shoes, you'd have question marks above your heads in real life, like this guy: /images/graemlins/confused.gif

[MagicFlea]

yeah... I only call a preflop raise with a hand I would call from the button (not K2s, but J10 or A2s yes). If I'm getting 7-1 I may call with this hand. Also keep in mind he is raising from EP.

[Alex/Mugaaz]

With this hand? Yes.
K little suited is virtually worthless unless you have a ton of callers in front of you. Then you fold it on the flop if you cant pick up the flush draw or unless you hit two pair.

K2s verse an early position raiser and no callers? Might as well burn your money.

[PokerProdigy]

First, I would like to say that I am in NO way trying to justify what I did here if I made a bad play. But I would like to explain my thought process so that you could see my point of view and tell me if you still think I was making a mistake, that way it will help my play for the future.

I was calling preflop because of I was getting half price (late position blind post) with a king-x suited.

I raised flop to try to get to see two free cards because I figured I had about 6.5 outs (1.5 for backdoor flush and 5 for two pair). When he reraised I thought I would try for the free card trick once more on flop. If he lead out on turn and I did NOT have two pair or flush draw I was going to give it up.

When he checked the turn I decided NOT to try and muscle him out because I wanted to take my free card.

[ArturiusX]

Just a few things:

1) Even half price isn't good enough. K2 is dominated by every King, and your facing a preflop raiser. What if you hit top pair? Or trips? You could never play with confidence. So the only reason you're playing this hand is to either hit a flush, or trips of 2s. The latter is unlikely, but can happen. If it does happen, you won't get a big pay off anyway with only these amount of people in the pot. The flush comes 5% of the time, and we're heads up.

So in other words, 5 other people in this pot, yeah thats ok because we're getting odds on the little draws. Heads up? Potentially dominated and we might be spewing chips. Easy fold.

Oh, and we're also out of position. Not good heads up.

[KaiShin]

[ QUOTE ]
First, I would like to say that I am in NO way trying to justify what I did here if I made a bad play. But I would like to explain my thought process so that you could see my point of view and tell me if you still think I was making a mistake, that way it will help my play for the future.

[/ QUOTE ]
I'm sorry if I came off all snarky. If you post your thinking process it just helps us figure out why you're doing what you're doing, and we can give appropriate feedback.

[ QUOTE ]
I was calling preflop because of I was getting half price (late position blind post) with a king-x suited.

[/ QUOTE ]
Would you have done the same thing with Kxo? Suitedness adds value to a hand, sure, but not that much value.

You also have to consider where the raise is coming from. You posted in mid position, and the raise is coming from early position. Unless UTG+1 here is a maniac, you should think about what you would raise in his position, and how your Kxs would fare against that range of hands.

[ QUOTE ]
I raised flop to try to get to see two free cards because I figured I had about 6.5 outs (1.5 for backdoor flush and 5 for two pair). When he reraised I thought I would try for the free card trick once more on flop. If he lead out on turn and I did NOT have two pair or flush draw I was going to give it up.

[/ QUOTE ]
Well this part of your plan seems to have worked, but I think more often than not if you get 3-bet HU that means your opponent has a hand and your free card play has failed already. But then again I'm not a HU specialist so I could be wrong on this.

[ QUOTE ]
When he checked the turn I decided NOT to try and muscle him out because I wanted to take my free card.

[/ QUOTE ]
Fair enough, I can understand that line.

[PokerProdigy]

I got one more question. What does HU stand for/mean?

[Duerig]

My line...

fold preflop

fold flop

check-fold the turn

bet-call the river

But take my advice with a grain of salt. I tend to suck at poker.

[Duerig]

Heads up. (1 on 1)

[Aaron W.]

[ QUOTE ]
I raised flop to try to get to see two free cards because I figured I had about 6.5 outs (1.5 for backdoor flush and 5 for two pair). When he reraised I thought I would try for the free card trick once more on flop.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's a really expensive free card play...

[ QUOTE ]
If he lead out on turn and I did NOT have two pair or flush draw I was going to give it up.

[/ QUOTE ]

This line makes your free card play massively -EV. If this was your intent, just call the 3-bet and save yourself the extra SB the 70% of the time you're going to miss.

[PokerProdigy]

LOL, thank you for quoting me and making me relize how very expensive my free card play was.