QQ against KKK?

[PrayingMantis]

10$ SNG. 8 left, blinds are 40/80, last hand in this level. I'm a little low with 900, and I'm dealt QQ on the button. All fold to me. SB is a weak player with low stack, BB is biggest stack with around 3500. I raise to 240, quite sure that SB will fold and BB will call with almost anything.
Well, SB folds, BB calls.

Flop: K /images/graemlins/spade.gif T /images/graemlins/diamond.gif 7 /images/graemlins/heart.gif

BB bets minimal bet: 80. I regard it as a check and call 80. I was ready to fold to any big bet.

Turn: K /images/graemlins/diamond.gif

Well, actually it made me a little happy, as it diminishes the chance he has K. But then, he bets 240, into a pot of 680. My read of him is of a loose-aggressive, I've seen him bluffing people out of pots. I'm not sure if I should put him on Ax (maybe A7?), a set of kings, or complete zilch.

What would you do here?



PrayingMantis

[DougBrennan]

You need to make a big enough bet to gain information. The time to do this was on the flop when he bet 80. There you could have re-raised to 250 and still left yourself some chips if he came back at you. Now you are down to about 580 if my math is right, and looking at a 240 bet to call. At this point I think you have to fold or go all-in. (From your description of your opponent, I think all your chips are going in one way or the other if you decide to play on.) In your shoes, I would go all-in and then go home if he has the K.

[Bozeman]

But if you are going to commit on the turn, why not call so that he will commit the rest of your stack with lots of hands worse than yours (probably A is the only river that hurts you if you are ahead).

[JDO]

On the flop I think you are in a raise or fold situation. If you call you show weakness and are begging him to steal (so you are basically throwing your money away), you also get zero information. You don't know what he has, but you should be certain, based on your read of him, that he is going to make a big bet to try and take the pot down on the turn.
I certainly wouldn't call the big Turn bet, either go all in if you think he's bluffing or fold. If he's bluffing he still won't drop his hand (you don't have enough chips to scare him, so you have to be very confident on the bluff read cause you run a strong risk of ending up on your hiney.

[CrisBrown]

Hiya P.M.,

Like the others, I'd have made a raise at the flop to see where he is. Given how you've played it and what you know so far -- including his style-- I'd call at the turn and the river, playing my QQ as if a bluff-catcher.

Cris

[SossMan]

[ QUOTE ]
But if you are going to commit on the turn, why not call so that he will commit the rest of your stack with lots of hands worse than yours (probably A is the only river that hurts you if you are ahead).

[/ QUOTE ]

I like this play the best. He will continue to bluff, and there are not many cards that will change. You're either way ahead or way behind him. Given what you did on the flop, I would call the turn and call the river if an Ace or 7 doesn't come. If an ace comes, I would [censored] myself and cry for mommy. If the case King shows, I would go all in no matter what.

[PrayingMantis]

Thank you all for your replies. first, I see now that calling that little bet on the flop was a mistake, and that I should have raised there. I actually learned nothing on the flop, and only waiting for something to happen on the turn, which is a weak and passive play.

Second, I've learned that diifferent people have different opinion regarding the turn move - some of you think that it's a raise/fold situation and the others see it as a call to the end. Now I see the advantages of calling him on the turn and then on the river, but at the time I saw it, as some of you here, as a fold/raise, so I raised all-in, prepared to go home if he calls it.

And he did call, showing a monster: K /images/graemlins/club.gif 7 /images/graemlins/diamond.gif

The result doesn't really matter for me here, I just wanted to hear what is, in your opinion, the right play on this spot. But there is something more for me to be learned from this: I think I misread the small bet on the flop: now I understand it as a tell, common to many on-line players. It's betting the minimum bet when you have a monster, or a semi-monster, in order to show "weakness". If I recall rightly, this specific player never in that game bet so weakly - he either bet heavily (pot, half-pot etc.) or folded. That little bet on the flop (T80 to a pot of 520) was his awkward way of showing me "weakness", rather then just checking there. It's like saying "look, I have much more chips than you, but I bet so little, it's really pathetic, believe me I have absolutely nothing...".

The bet on the turn was of course a riversed-bluff, not too strong, that worked in this case. If I just paid more attention to the first small bet, I think I would have folded there, instead of going home. But who knows...

Anyway, thanks for the good advice,

PrayingMantis

[CrisBrown]

Hiya P.M.,

You may be right about his flop bet, although it may also have been that he wasn't confident with his kicker. (I wouldn't be.) When the second K fell, showing him three of the four Ks, he felt more sure of his hand.

If you'd made a pot-sized reraise at the flop and he'd called, you'd have to give him credit for the K, and you are done betting that hand, even if he checks it to the river, which is likely because you've made him worry about his kicker.

Cris

[PrayingMantis]

Hey cris,

I think you maybe misread the cards on this last post, or the first: he didn't have a kicker problem, because this guy flopped 2 pairs (he had K7, the flop being KT7), and on the turn he had the boat. Hence my thoughts regarding the "weak" bet.

Anyway, you are right about the raise I didn't make on the flop. /images/graemlins/smile.gif


PrayingMantis

[CrisBrown]

Hiya P.M.,

Yup. I'm old (see another thread) and blonde so I have two excuses....

Cris