Hand To Talk About

It's a short-handed (7 people), B&M 6-12 game. I've mucked every hand including the blinds (they were raised to me and I had nothing) for the first full round.

UTG I raise and it's folded all the way around to the buttom who calls. He's an aggressive player and usually plays 15-30. The flop comes Ac,Kh,Ks. I bet out on the Flop and am raised. I call.

Turn comes 5d: board reads Ac,Kh,Ks,5d. I check, button immediately bets. It's late, I've been waiting a while for a table, I'm not at my best, been thinking about leaving and the drive home, etc. when the light comes on. What is this guy doing? My first bet at the table is a pre-flop raise and a raise UTG. Shouldn't this guy put me on AK, AA, KK?

I'm not a fancy player -- maybe that's the problem, but he's got to put me on Some type of hand. If he had any of the above hands I think he should put me on, then I reason he would have re-raised me preflop -- so I'm not putting him on AA, AK, KK. I think I should raise, but my mouth says "Call" and the River comes the 9h for a board of Ac,Kh,Ks,5d, 9h. I check, he bets, I call and he says, "If you can call me, you win." and flips his hand over -- and I scoop the pot after he says, "How can you call my raise on the Flop?"

I'll tell you what we both had a little later on. I really want to hear comments on how I played the hand, which I think is pretty poorly -- at the very least, very timidly.

[Mike Gallo]

MrCatsnob,

Check the FAQ, Mason has the exclusive rights to naming posts.. Hand To Talk About .

It's a short-handed (7 people), B&M 6-12 game.

You will get better answers and more responses in the small stakes forum.

Welcome aboard.

[The Goober]

Obviously we can't really comment on how you played the hand unless we know what you had. If you had KK, for example, you played it very poorly.

I'm going to guess that you had JJ or QQ, and that button had something like QJs-89s, or a mid PP like 55-88 (I usually assume that villain is a poor player unless its stated otherwise - aggro players like to pay too much to play hands like these because they think they can bully you on later streets).

If my guess is right, I like your line. This is a classic way ahead / way behind situation. The best draw villain could have is a gutshot, and you've got some of his probable outs. Let him keep bluffing his worse hand and don't give him a chance to fold by raising him. Against some players I'd say you should bet the river (give him a chance to call with his PP where he would have checked it through) but this guy seems like the type to fire the last barrel, so I like your check here - it extracts an extra bet if he has no pair.