($55) AJs on KK5o board -- contesting HU

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t50 (8 handed) internettexasholdem.com

saw flop|<font color="#C00000">saw showdown</font>

BB (t1735)
UTG (t955)
Hero (t835)
MP1 (t1840)
MP2 (t1370)
CO (t1380)
Button (t930)
SB (t955)

Preflop: Hero is UTG+1 with A[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], J[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img].
<font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, <font color="#CC3333">Hero raises to t150</font>, <font color="#666666">5 folds</font>, BB calls t100.

Flop: (t325) 5[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], K[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], K[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
BB checks, <font color="#CC3333">Hero bets t160</font>, <font color="#CC3333">BB raises to t320</font>, Hero ??????



BB has cold called before w/ KTs and has been playing very aggressively. Winning lots of pots by making big bets, he hardly ever goes to showdown so haven't seen many of his cards.


What should Hero's play be here, and why?

[tigerite]

Personally? I fold. The raise pf is "okay" though a little bit laggish.

He's not going to fold if you push the flop if he has a PP (or obviously a K). He will have the former especially too often. He may fold a 5, a lot won't though.

[mlagoo]

with your chipstack (read: 16xBB) i think this preflop raise is bad. if you're reraised, you have to fold, if you're called and bet into on a whiffed flop, you have to fold, and if you CB on a whiff and get called, you have to either give up on the hand or stick all your chips in on the turn.

having raised though, you have to bet this flop, but i bet it for around 200-250. thats a bit nitpicky though. once he raises you you have to give up because you're not folding 77, or, really, any hand you're beating.

edit: i just realized i was posting in the SNG forum and not the MTT forum.

for some reason, that makes me like the raise preflop more =/

Thanks guys, looks like you both feel this is a fold.

I felt comfortable raising AJs from EP here. Everybody up to the blinds are very tight, having played less than 10% of their hands.


FWIW, I pushed here and BB folded. I've shown this hand to a couple of people and they both said I should put it up here on 2+2. I thought it would generate more conversation... is pushing here really that bad a play?

[Freudian]

[ QUOTE ]

FWIW, I pushed here and BB folded. I've shown this hand to a couple of people and they both said I should put it up here on 2+2. I thought it would generate more conversation... is pushing here really that bad a play?

[/ QUOTE ]

I think most of the time it is. With the size of the pot and your limited stack, I don't think the push has a lot of FE. And quite often he will have you beat here.

I would also fold this preflop for the simple reason that if someone pushes you have to lay it down, and you are giving quite a lot of players the chance to push here.

[mlagoo]

i mean, the problem is that when you finally push you're pushing for 365 more chips into a, I think, 1330 chip pot. So villian is getting almost 4:1. he's really only folding rags here at this point.

i think you just got kinda lucky that you were against a super donk here.