6M: K9 on the Button, AKx on Flop

This was one of my first few hands at the table, so I had very little read on BB here. All I knew so far was he played a little loose.

Raise the flop? Fold the flop? Call down? He's clearly not leading into me with a draw. I'm never sure what to do in these situations.

Absolute Poker 0.50/1 Hold'em (6 handed) converter (http://www.fourthnut.com/cgi-bin/hhconverter.cgi)

Preflop: Hero is Button with K/images/graemlins/club.gif, 9/images/graemlins/spade.gif.
<font color="#666666">3 folds</font>, <font color="#CC3333">Hero raises</font>, <font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, BB calls.

Flop: (4.50 SB) K/images/graemlins/heart.gif, 5/images/graemlins/diamond.gif, A/images/graemlins/spade.gif <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
<font color="#CC3333">BB bets</font>, Hero...

[lautzutao]

I'd call down.

That's how I played it. Looking back at the hand now, I don't know why I called down. When someone raises and AKx comes on the flop, most people would realize the flop connected with them somehow. Yet he isn't bothered by the AK flop at all and leads right into me on a drawless board.

[lautzutao]

If you raise and are 3-bet, what do you do on the flop? Let it go? Against an Unknown I call down because I don't know if he's whacky or he's got the nuts.

You have a good hand here and it's worth a showdown I think. Calling down seems the cheapest way to get there if you're beat, and costs a bluffer the most if he's got nothing.

I would also call it down.

I don't like calling down at all....

I like a raise, see if he really likes his hand.

A few things can happen...

1) he re-raises you, in which case you can call for one more small bet and then throw it away on a turn bet, unimproved.

2) he calls, then donks on the turn, unimproved you should fold

3) he folds - he may have been feeling you out, and not have an A or K (at Absolute you have a lot of aggressive players)

4) he calls, and checks the turn, now you can take the free card, or if you spike another K or 9, you can raise, if you feel your ahead you can even fire again on the turn to get a fold or a check....

So calling down from a single flop bet, IMHO, is not the best option here. You have a marginal hand, and with a call down you have no idea where it stands.

For me, the most common scenarios are:

1) I raise the flop, and then he re-riases - I fold, aggainst a passive, and will call then fold the turn unimproved against an aggressive opponent.

2) I raise the flop, he calls, then checks the turn. If you improve bet out, if not, check through, and see what happens on the river. (I may change my play here based on his Went to Show Down stat, the higher the more likely I will bet on the turn if a safe card falls.)

I am not going to get into the math, but I am sure you can figure that part out.

Margon

P.S. Middle Pair, decent kicker will lose a LOT more than it wins, based on my experience in the game we are talking about (AP .50/1.00 6-Max)