Another KK with A on the flop hand

[Nathan183]

Read on villain is solid TAG, hasn't done anything crazy, a good player I think.

Don't have the hand history, so I'll do it from memory.

$50 NL. I think I had ~$70 and villain had me covered.

I'm in EP, UTG or UTG+1 and raise to $2 with KK. Villain min raises to $4 (this confused me, I thought he was a good player!). Folded back to me and I make it $9 (too small?). After a long pause, he calls.

At this point, I've shown a lot of strength, and don't think he's calling here with less than QQ (maybe JJ) or AK.

Flop is A82 rainbow. QQ seems like the most likely hand now, although AK and AA are still possibilities, and less likely JJ or a AQ.

I bet $10 with the intention of folding to a raise.

Is this a good move? I don't want to give QQ a chance to bet me off of this pot. I've clearly defined my hand with preflop action, and I think checking would basically be saying "I have KK, take this pot from me".

He calls the $10. This surpised me, as I expect a raise from AK. Is he trapping with AK or even AA?

Turn is a blank and I check. He pushes. Another strange move I think. Why would he just call the flop and push the turn? My thought was that he could actually have QQ and sensed weakness with my turn check and was trying to get me to fold KK. I thought for awhile, and decided not to give a $50 NL player this much credit. I folded. What did villain have?

[TreyOfLight]

In villain's shoes, against a player who's probably tight about raises from EP, I'd play this flop very agressively with any two cards.

His PF minraise was him asking whether you have KK/AA, or him having AA and wanting to bloat the pot. I'd say his range is either very wide or exactly AA. You're too deep to pot-stick him here, and so I like a call better than a small raise.

But since you 3-bet preflop, you need to rep a set of aces to keep him from prying you off the pot. Keep in mind that his most likely holdings are AAA or nothing at all; a check-raise should be enough to discover which.

[TheWorstPlayer]

He has AK or AA.

[Nathan183]

Now that I think about it, the re-raise preflop was probably not a good idea vs. another TAG. Obviously against a fish who will give me all his chips on a 269 flop with TT I want a bigger pot. Against this player, it was clearly not the correct play as it pretty much flips my cards face up (if he has AA, he knows I have KK).

A check raise on the flop? That would be a significant price to confirm that I am in fact beat here. Even if he bets half the pot, I'd have to put in nearly half of my chips with a check raise. If he checks behind, which he may very well do with AA, I still don't know where I stand.

I thought my options on the flop were either bet out, or check/fold. Maybe check/call a small bet.

[TreyOfLight]

[ QUOTE ]
A check raise on the flop? That would be a significant price to confirm that I am in fact beat here.

[/ QUOTE ]

To put in 15% of your stack preflop and then check/fold is pretty weak, but I still like that better than leading out, because what do you beat that can call (unless it's part of a plan to steal it from you on the turn)? What beats you that might fold?

I think if you're going to make a play at the pot, it has to be in a stronger fashion than just leading out on the flop, which he expects you to do 100% of the time anyway.

[xcrack999]

If you're going to lead the flop, you have to bet stronger than half the pot. (Unless you would normally bet half pot with AK or AA on that board, then please ignore my post)

[amoeba]

you must reraise a minraise preflop or you might have it multiway on the flop.