Need advice on these hands

[napawino]

$30 Multi on PokerStars last night. ~500 entries. I'll skip straight to the interesting hands.

~60 people left Blinds: 1000/2000 ante 100
Hero is chip leader with 93,000
#2 (35,000), #3 (27,000) & #5 (24,000) are all at my table!
#3 (teecoy) is very aggressive & sitting to my right. He is also the tournament point leader on Pokerstars, so I'm giving him a little respect.

Dealt KK in the sb. Folded to teecoy (27,000) on the button who goes all-in. Without hesitating I call. Should I have considered folding here? Obviously I think I've got the best hand, but there are only a few people that can bruise my stack. Should I wait for a better opportunity & keep pushing the small stacks around? Results are unimportant (but obvious from the rest of the post.)

Down to 7. Blinds 3000/6000 ante 300 I've got 100k (#4 maybe?) & MP has ~95k)
Dealt Kh6h in the BB. Somewhat fishy player minimum raises from MP. Folded to me, I call.
Flop 6c Ah 5h. I make a pot-sized bet. MP calls
Turn 4h. Bingo. Should I bet? I did & MP came over the top with A4 which didn't improve.

& the big hand that had my girlfriend & I arguing for 10 minutes afterward...
2 players left.
Teecoy (490,000) & hero (290,000)
Blinds 4000/8000 ante 400
5th hand head's up. I had KK a few hands earlier, but Teecoy has raised EVERY hand short handed so unless I'm going to catch another KK, I'm going to have to make some moves.
Dealt 7c 9c in the BB.
Teecoy raises 3BB to 22,000. I think about it, but call.
Flop 5d Kc 4c. Pot is 45,000
I bet 45k. Teecoy raises to 90k (minimum raise)
Hmm. If I fold, I only have just under 200k & he's got about 600k. I think about it for a second & raise all-in. (My girlfriend screams at me.)
Teecoy IMMEDIATELY calls with Kd 7h & I don't improve.

(& on a side note, this Teecoy fella must have his own "crew" because there were about 8 railbirds giving him the "hizzie, sizzie, sweeeet" crap the whole time. Not that I'm bitter. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] )

My girlfriend's argument was that I needed to claw my way back & not get impatient. She also thinks that I'm a good heads-up player (which I am in $10 SNG's but I'm not sure that applies here.) Advice is appreciated.

[Cleveland Guy]

1. You have the 2nd best starting hand and him covered almost 4-1. EASY CALL

2. Let him bet into you - he will more times than not. Worked out okay, but you have the nuts, give him a chance to hang himself

3. I wouldn't have bet out 45K when I missed the flop

[eMarkM]

There's that name again. That teecoy has been on one incredible run. I watched some of that final table last night. He won that large $30 tourney, was at the final of Wed $10 rebuy, won a $55 rebuy, and several other money finishes, so he's attracted quite a following on this run. He's an excellent player, but he's also been running unimaginably good. Didn't he flop a set of sevens against Kings at that final, I think that's where he really built his stack. Was that against you? He'll likely take TLB weekly leader for two consecutive weeks, quite an accomplishment. Anyway...

KK hand, gimme a break. Of course you call, what a chance to build an even greater chip lead! Did he have AA, or suckout?

K6 hand I think you played fine. Calling a min raise is ok, but you can get in trouble if a K flops. Once you make the flush you can check to very aggressive players and let them hang themselves. With fishys, you can bet out and get a loose call. He had 2 pair so he was going all the way regardless.

HU hand. Calling with 97s isn't horrible HU, you have to play hands against aggressive players, but 97 isn't a reraising hand so a call is fine. I'd probably bet less on the flop, but then I usually underbet the pot on the flop. Then maybe you can get away from it if he raised the pot and give him credit for the K. I think that pot sized bet really committed you too much. If he doesn't get a piece, he likely folds to a smaller bet as much as he does to the larger bet. This is a tough one HU, I don't think the all-in is terrible as a semi-bluff as you're going to get many hands he has to fold. His minimum raise makes me a little suspicious, like he wants a call, and he's almost pricing you in to hit the club. But then as you say, you're left with few chips if you call and miss and he moves in on the turn. So it seems like you're a bit pot stuck here. That happens at these final tables as the blind are so high as to not give you much room to manuever.

Congrats on the 2nd place finish!

[MLG]

The KK hand is fine obviously, and heads-up play is so situation dependent, but I have no problem with how you played it.

The K6 suited hand is interesting. Calling preflop is fine. I'm not sure I like betting out on the flop. If I have a medium pocket I'm calling here, if I have a weak ace I'm calling here. You said this guy was fishy, so maybe Im giving him too much credit, but I am not laying down a decent hand here to somebody who might be trying to push me off my hand. I'm gonna make you fire a second barrel on the turn. I don't think at this point in the tourney you want these hands to call. I think a massive check-raise is better. Playing the hand this way you will push him off of all his mediocre hands and not be faced with a very tricky turn decision if you miss. I'm not sure here, and I don't think your line was deffinitely wrong, but I think I like mine better.

Congrats on the finish.

[SossMan]

KK hand is fine...of course you call.

Heads up play is good...I think he folds pairs < K there and you have outs.

The K6s hand is interesting. I like a check raise on that flop since a free card certainly won't hurt you and you are ahead of one pair hands.
when you make the nuts on the turn, I like the bet out, since he may check behind with the scare card, and won't necessarily give you credit for the flush because of the flop bet. Of course you caught him with a 2nd best hand when you had the nuts, that never hurts.

good job..well played, congrats.

[schwza]

i'd check-raise push on the flush draw hand. if you get the free card, that's cool, otherwise you get a chance to take a shot at him when you have outs. if he bets and folds, which it sounds like is pretty likely given your description of him (assuming unknown cards), then you'll probably slow him down and make your life a little easier.

the reason i don't like the bet is that if he raises a reasonable amount, you don't have any folding equity if you push, so you'll have to fold to a probable bluff.

[napawino]

Thanks for the advice, everyone.

eMarkM, you’re right, teecoy is really on an amazing run. I sat next to him for 3 hours last night & he went all-in with ATos vs. KK (against me), 77 vs. KK, AJos vs. AKs & QQ & won all three. He also had AA against AQ & AK to help him build his stack. He LOVES AT & AJ & they worked for him last night.

Regarding the KK hand, I never even considering anything but calling - as a matter of fact, I nearly jumped out of my chair screaming "yes" when he went all in. I was just wondering if I should have considered anything else - it sounds like the resounding answer is "of course not" & I shouldn’t be second-guessing myself.

Regarding the flush draws, it's VERY rare for me to put all my chips in the pot on a draw, but I sometimes bet the draw anyway - it usually disguises the draw if it hits & of course I win the pots a good number of times uncontested. If I had been him, I’m not sure if I would have called with K7 – even heads up, so I was really counting more on the fold equity than on the draw. (But obviously I had outs.)

Thanks,

-Napawino

[napawino]

I like the advice you and others had regarding the check raise on the Kh6h hand & I really like the logic you mentioned. I think I got lucky to be against A4 there - where he decided to just call. AK, AQ, AJ, AT might have raised & put me to the test.

(Even though I did it head's up), it's not really in my nature to push on a draw - probably a leak.