Stupid or Brilliant?

[jasonHoldEm]

Hello everyone,

I'm pretty new to NL (so please don't bite my head off), and this hand pretty much proves it.

6 person NL tournament at UB.

Blinds are at 30/60 one person is already out, I'm the number two stack with around 1500 big stack has 1800 or so (6000 chips in play).

I'm in the CO with A /forums/images/icons/diamond.gif A /forums/images/icons/spade.gif (big stack is BB), it's folded to me and I double the BB. Button and SB fold BB raises to 180, I make it 250 to go, BB calls.

Flop comes: 3 /forums/images/icons/club.gif , 3 /forums/images/icons/diamond.gif , K /forums/images/icons/club.gif

BB checks, I bet out for 100, BB calls

Turn: 5 /forums/images/icons/heart.gif

BB checks again I bet out for 200 and the BB goes all-in.

From what I've seen the BB is a pretty solid player, they had gone all-in earlier (and gotten a caller) with the nuts. They've also made several good trapping plays (one of which I'm realizing I probably just fell for).

When the BB didn't come over top of me pre-flop and just check/called the flop I was thinking flush draw (although calling 250 for a draw seems questionable). I wanted to charge them as much as possible to draw to the flush which is why I bet flop/turn. Given what I know about the player I would doubt they're playing some crap hand like A3, K3 etc, If they just have a king (AK maybe) I'm ahead, but given the BB prior actions I'm thinking either 33 or KK, which means I'm drawing dead or very thin with one card to come.

I have a minor aneurysm trying to decide what to do. I end up mucking the rockets and BB shows KK, I feel relieved that I read it right, but I'm wondering where I could have played it differently to not loose a third of my stack. /forums/images/icons/confused.gif

Thanks in advance,
jHE

[sdplayerb]

I think you are fortunate to only lose 1/3 of your stack. I think your original raise should have been 3x the BB. Then he would have reraised and you come over the top and ended up allin and lost it all unless you made a big pushin at some point. But i think he would have called any huge bet with KK.

[ohkanada]

Folding may well have been correct and most players wouldn't do it so congrats.

But you should have lost more chips pre-flop. Don't just double the blinds. This is NL and only 6 handed. Make it 180 to go. If he re-raises that, make another big re-raise. Get him to commit more chips while you know you are ahead.

On the flop the pot is 500 or so and you bet 100. Make something closer to a pot sized bet. Even 300-350 would be fine. 100 is asking to be called and doesn't help define either of your hands. You are hoping he has AK.

Ken Poklitar

[Ignatius]

I'm wondering where I could have played it differently to not loose a third of my stack.

You should rather wonder what you did wrong by failing to get your stack in with AA given that the other guy had KK. The fact that the BB hit his two-outer is completely insignificant: Both of you seriously misplayed the hand by messing around with ridiculous underbets and failing to move in preflop, given that the effective stack was less than 20 times the blinds.

I'm in the CO with AA (big stack is BB), it's folded to me and I double the BB.

This limit raise is terrible play. Unless you have a very good reason not to, in NL, you should never bet or raise much less than the pot (in this case T210, so making it T200 would seem reasonable here).

BB raises to 180

OK, so the BB played it even worse by making yet another limit raise, but this is no excuse for

I make it 250 to go,

Had you made a reasonable opening bet, you should be all-in by now without ever having to go out of line with big overbet, and chances are the BB would happily call you for your whole stack as a 1:4 dog.

[Fat Tony]

Why or how is he 1:4 Dog ???

[Guy McSucker]

Heads-up and all-in before the flop, AA is between a 4:1 and 5:1 favourite over KK, depending on the suits.

Guy.

[RollaJ]

As Already stated when he reraised you preflop you should have pushed all-in, then at least if he calls, you played it right. You gave him a chance to catch any set he had on the flop. No way he calls all in with 55 preflop, but if thats what he had you let him beat you by not going all in.
Once the pot is higher than just the blinds you cant worry about making more money with the aces, push it in when you are the favorite /forums/images/icons/grin.gif IMHO

[jasonHoldEm]

Thanks guys,

Like I said I'm new to NL and bet size is one of the things I'm having trouble with (which is why I was making the "limit" raises), also I find NL a lot more psychological than limit...which for me is a real challenge/allure of the game. Even though I played the hand poorly (and probably should have been all-in at this point) my thought process for the laydown probably destoryed some brain cells. I was about 80-85% sure of the KK or 33 theory, would you have called for a 15-20% chance of AK? I'm also really glad the BB showed their hand, just mucking it (as they should have done) would have had me wondering the rest of the game.

I see now WHY I should make the bigger bets early, before I was a bit confused...still would have lost the hand (well...probably, never did see the river card), but in this situation in the future I'll definately be betting (and re-raising) more.

Thanks again,
jHE