1st time poster - hand advice

[sloshr]

Hey there, I've been lurking a bit reading other peoples posts, and enjoy the advice I see.

I would appreciate some feedback on a hand I played last night. Unfortunately, I don't have the fancy play history that many of you post with, but I've typed up with as much detail as I can remember the gist of how the hand went.

Now, this table had been super tight about 10 hands prior, and had loosened up a great deal even in just those 10 hands - another player mentioned that the table had gone from tight to loose to downright CRAZY - so, that sort of sets the tone for table. I hadn't seen the person I ended up betting against in this hand play any other hands, so I didn't really have a feeling for his betting tendencies. This was a $50 buy in no limit table, and I had about $60 and he had about $30 prior to this hand.

I had K/9 suited (I personally like that hand when it's suited, I've heard others tell me it's junk) and board comes 9/x/9... I make a $5 raise, 2 callers. Turn comes a queen... everyone checks.... River delivers a blank... I make a bet, I think the pot was about $20, and I bet $5. The guy to my left goes all in, number 3 folds, I call the $10. I won, he had been holding Ace/Queen. He then says to me, "You raised with that?" and I'm thinking - well... yah.... I thought it was a good play, but he has me questioning myself now (err, memo to self, you won the pot, don't question too much at the moment, but check into it later). I respond, "You called with that?" and he says, "LOL, ok whatever dude".

I don't see how he could have been representing anything that would have beat a set up until he decides to go all in - at that point, I think I have good reason to call the $10 more for the size pot it was.

Again, I just look forward to whatever feedback folks will provide. Thanks. I may have some of the dollar amounts off by a bit, so please don't hyper analyze that, I'm just trying to give a general idea of what the bets were - it's pretty close.

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[Sam T.]

You left out pre-flop action and position, both of which are important.

If you were able to limp in LP with your K9s, I have no problem with this play. If you are raising UTG pre-flop with K9s, I'd put a little note next to your name, and re-pop your raises with some frequency.

What's the pot on the flop? It's hard to judge the $5 bet here.

Why check the turn? (Not saying it was a bad idea to show weakness here - on a drawless board it probably kept AQ in the hand - just curious.)

Why underbet the river? (If it was to entice a raise, fine. I might push here to try to convince someone I was trying to steal the pot. I love doing that with the nuts.)

My two cents,

Sam

[sloshr]

Ahh, I wonder if I did raise pre flop - my hand history is at home, I'll check that. I bet that's why he complained of me raising. Thanks for feedback, I'll do more homework on this hand tonight.

[Leaky Game]

Raising preflop K9s is real, real iffy imho unless you're first in late.

It's almost a guarantee that anyone who calls is ahead of you and even if you flop a flush it's not even the nuts. A K flops and your kicker isn't too great. Chances of hitting a K high straight is pretty minimal. Too many hands out there that can beat you.

Just one man's opinion.

[Sam T.]

[ QUOTE ]
It's almost a guarantee that anyone who calls is ahead of you

[/ QUOTE ]

This is why I don't mind the play if he is raising limpers from LP. You lose your stack when you think you are ahead and are wrong, and that can't happen here.

[Kaz The Original]

There are times I'll raise K9s, even with limpers in front of me, when I'm doing a a full out assault on the table and have really strong reads on everyone.

Regardless, you need to work on your preflop selection. Trying playing only pocket pairs and A10+ (folding anything but AK and a pocket pair to a preflop raise), and raising only AK, AQ, AA, KK and QQ. It's not the most +EV strategy, but you should know how to play that style before you try other hands.

[sloshr]

Thanks for the advice Kaz - seems very solid..