Hand from tonight's tourney

[dfscott]

I feel like I screwed this hand up royally.

MP2 was a maniac, playing any two and playing very aggressively.


PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t50 (7 handed) converter (http://www.selachian.com/tools/bisonconverter/hhconverter.cgi)

Hero (t1510)
Button (t959)
SB (t1866)
BB (t2330)
UTG (t710)
MP1 (t1350)
MP2 (t1775)

Preflop: Hero is CO with K/images/graemlins/club.gif, K/images/graemlins/diamond.gif.
<font color="#666666">2 folds</font>, <font color="#CC3333">MP2 raises to t122</font>, Hero calls t122, <font color="#666666">3 folds</font>.

Since MP2 was so agressive, I thought I would call and then bet any non-A flop hard. Should I have just re-raised here?

Flop: (t319) J/images/graemlins/club.gif, T/images/graemlins/spade.gif, A/images/graemlins/club.gif <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
<font color="#CC3333">MP2 bets t50</font>, <font color="#CC3333">Hero raises to t200</font>, <font color="#CC3333">MP2 raises to t1653 (All-in)</font>, Hero folds.

The A flop looks bad, but his tiny bet smells funny. It's either a monster or a weak defensive bet. I decide to raise to see how much he likes his hand. I screwed up on the amount -- I really meant to raise to 400 or so. Now I'm thinking I should've just called. Thoughts?

[curtains]

One note, I don't think calling preflop is so bad considering how he was playing. He is reasonably likely to just give you all his chips on good flops.

By the way it may be hard to believe, but this player is actually very tight (tighter than me for sure). He just has a hard time playing his normal game for small stakes I think. Everytime I invite him to a cheap private tourney he goes nuts.

[Benoit]

Re-raising him, even with something weaker like jacks or tens is suitable, especially because there are still people left to act. You got lucky they folded, but it could have been a multiway pot. In addition to the other reasons, you actually wanted to isolate this guy and make sure he makes a mistake.

Your kings are actually worth more then you think against him because he might very well be going all-in on a pure bluff or semi-bluff with a flush/inside straight draw/ bottom pain/ etc.

Now it may be possible he raised with AK or Kx, but you already had two of the kings, less likely. It may be possible he raised with Ax, this might concern me but you did say he was too aggressive so there is a much broader range of hands he would raise. Medium suited connectors could put him on a flush draw or inside straight draw. Small to medium pair with poor or good judgment on making a bluff depending on how you look at it.

Should have re-raised pre-flop. I wouldn't fault you for folding on the flop, however I feel there are a ton of hands he could have raised with that I'd be ahead on so I'm leaning towards calling.