How do you play this?

[PlayerA]

I'm in the $5 re-buy satellite to the 500+30 on Stars. I have 36K with 37 players left. This puts me in about 27th or so. Most hands not seeing flop. The blinds are 1K/2K. I am in EMP with K [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] J [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]. I make it 6K to go. Player in LP who has me covered flat calls. BB calls.

Flops comes 6 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] 9 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 9 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]. BB checks. I check. The LP player makes a weak 3K bet into the over 20K pot. No real read except that it looks weak, smells weak. What's your move?

I check-raise to about 12K. LP thinks and calls. BB folds.

Next card is 10 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]. Giving me a gut shot provided I'm not drawing dead. I move in and he calls and shows A [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] K [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img].

This hand was winnable for me without a doubt. However, I think went it about all wrong. I'm just curious how others play this post flop (I don't care if you think KJs is trash and blah blah blah).

[fnurt]

I want to bet at this flop but I confess I don't want to make a very meaningful bet with this hand either.

I think rather than a check-raise the better move would have been to flat call and bet into him on the turn. The problem is, his weak bet may indicate a draw, and he might not want to lay that down on the flop. You don't want to have to fire a second barrel with only KJ. If you wait until the turn, he may give up that draw with only one card left to go. If you get raised on the turn, then you can just give it up with a clear conscience.

[hebe151]

Obviously I am a new poster here but you were right when you felt his hand was weak with the two 9s on the flop. If you were going to make a move perhaps you should have pushed in on the flop otherwise i would probably let it go and wait for a better hand to pick up chips.

[45Player]

If you felt his flop bet was weak (and it certainly looked like that), then you should have check raised all-in. Raising to 12k gives him odds of almost 4/1. Raising all-in makes it much more unattractive for him. He must think that you have an overpair, but that an A or K will win it for him. The odds are not in his favour but since you didn’t give us his stack size maybe it’s not such a bad call, especially if an Ace or King comes on the turn and he thinks you are pot-committed.

On the turn you are betting 18k into a 43k pot. He has to call this as he has 14 outs.
I’m not sure what you could have done here. I suppose at that stage you just had to go all-in and hope that he hadn’t picked up a draw. The damage had already been done.
You should not have left yourself with such a small stack (compared to the pot) when you were on a bluff.

If I had raised pre-flop with that hand, then I would have followed up with an all-in on the flop. That flop was perfect for a pre-flop raiser.

I’m not going to mention that raising one sixth of your stack with that hand in EMP position was not the best move in the world. Especially if you’re not going to follow through on a non-scary flop.

[PlayerA]

Thanks for the responses. Knowing what he had makes the path clear: check, call, check, call, bet. Of course I didn't know what he had.

As was pointed out, my check-raise was also weak. His call here was not bad. His call on the turn was fine given that he may have figured himself for a best case 15 outer/probable 10 outer. Any card other than a club falls on the turn, I would've won the hand.