Trapped?

[CaliQ]

Super Thursday NL on Party

I am at final table around 4th in chips (71K)10 people.

Blinds 2k-4k. Pick up AA guy raises to 12k, i make 24k he calls

flop is KK8, he checks I bet 20k he flat calls. His calls screams of a K but i thought he could also have QQ or JJ or worse in that spot and call.

I bet my last 31k on the turn and am shown KT.

Now, I have only played tournys for about a month. Should I have checked the turn and folded the river? I just couldn't lay it down with pot bieng almost 100k. Even If I check the turn and he puts me all in on the river I probably would have called.

I am inexperienced in these situations so was curious about how other people would have played these. A friend told me I should have raised more preflop and taken the pot right there. But I was thinking I didn't want him to fold.

Was a fold correct because I still would have had around 30k with the blinds only at 2k 4k? Raise more preflop? don't bet the 20k on the flop?

Thanks in advance for the input

[jimotto]

You really can't reraise him preflop and leave yourself any wiggle room postflop, so just get it all in preflop.

Postflop, all you can do to get away from it is make your half pot bet and give up if he calls. Which leaves you feeling sick afterwards but you'd still have chips. Yuck, reraise all in preflop.

[davidross]

I think you got caught between two strategies. You obviously considered pushing all-in preflop but made the decision that you wanted to try and get more out of him. THere is nothing wrong with that, but you now have to deal with post-flop play.

I like your flop bet, but I think you have to check the turn. Pushing all-in here you will probably only get called when you are beat so it gains nothing. By checking, you might get a chance to snap off a bluff by him on the river, or if he checks again, you can make a small bet. On that board you don't want to get it all-in. I would call any river bet though.

I like pushing all-in pre-flop. At a final table you will get called by a lot of worse hands, although maybe not KT. I don't like the minimum raises, but if your goal was to entice a call then it worked.