A K SUITED

[5HIGHSTRAIGHTFLUSH]

Hi All,
This is my first post.
[fyi]I have been playing hold'em since July 2003. (I know not long) I have read "winning low-limit hold'em" by Lee Jones, Phil hellmuth's book and read some of Sklansky's "hold'em poker" book.
I am at a crossroads of confusion in regards to poker right now.
I have been playing well my first six months adopting the tight-agressive style of play. I am up about $700 going into this last weekend, all of which is live action poker at an Indian Casino hear in So. Cal. I have also played in 4 tourny's having 10th place as my best finish and never finishing in the money.
My Weekend.........
I sat down to play $4-$8 with a kill. My fourth time at that level. I sit down and my 3rd hand in is a kill pot and look down to find AK /images/graemlins/spade.gif. I am in early position behind an UTG fold and I raise it to $16 to go. I get 3 callers.
Flop- 2 /images/graemlins/spade.gif 10 /images/graemlins/spade.gif Q /images/graemlins/diamond.gif. I bet the flop and all 3 call. Turn- k /images/graemlins/heart.gif. I bet $16 and the next player raises to $32. To my suprise both players call and knowing that I am beat, I call with my top pair-nut flush & nut-straight draw. The river brings off the 9 /images/graemlins/heart.gif sealing my fate. I check and the player that raised on the turn bets. 1 caller and I fold.
Could or should I have played this any diff.?
Please don't hold back.

Winning hand was a set of Queens.
You guessed it. From the turn raiser.
He did not three bet pre-flop and waited to raise until the turn when he flopped a set.
What do you guys think?

[slavic]

Well I think the turn raiser played it pretty bad.

On the end getting 15 to 1 closing the action I'd have to be real sure I'm beat to not toss in an extra bet. If I had any doubt at all I'd see the showdown. Losing 1 extra bet is not that bad compared to losing the whole pot. The rest of the hand looks to be played well.

[el_grande]

I wouldn't necessarily think I was beat on the turn. Usually you are, but not all the time.

If a blank had fallen on the river, I would probably bet it. But a scare card fell, so you should check-call the river even though you are beat 90% of the time. The only way you can fold is if you had a raise back to you.

[Stu Pidasso]

[ QUOTE ]
On the end getting 15 to 1 closing the action I'd have to be real sure I'm beat to not toss in an extra bet

[/ QUOTE ]

To expand on your correct point:

There has been a lot of talk on this forum about calling down when the pot is especially large even if you think you are beat. The rationale is that the pot is so large that to fold is a catastrophic mistake(15 BB) if you have the best hand and a small mistake(1 BB)if you are beat. Because of the size of this pot, you do not have to win very often to make the crying call the correct long term play.

The key to making crying calls in situations like this, is that you have to be closing the action. If there are people behind you that still need to act after you make your crying call, a lot of calls turn into folds.

Stu

[Redhotman]

give advice on opponent. does anyone on this site do that?

[5HIGHSTRAIGHTFLUSH]

[ QUOTE ]
give advice on opponent. does anyone on this site do that?

[/ QUOTE ]
Did you read where I said it was only the third hand after I had sat down? /images/graemlins/smirk.gif
They all three called a kill pot pre-flop raise and that was all I had to go on.
I agree with you guys that I should have called the river, but my gut told me I was just giving away $16 with a call.
I thought however that they both had a straight. Now if a king comes off on the river then I call still scared of the straight and win it with trip kings.
I just was sure top pair was not gettin it done.