A Boat on the Rake.

[Eeegah]

This was from an earlier session today so my reads have faded, but I don't recall anyone from today standing out; the table was overall a bit more loose-passive than normal so you can safely consider the villain to be a typical .25/.50 player.


PokerStars 0.25/0.50 Hold'em (6 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is SB with 3[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], A[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]. CO posts a blind of $0.25.
UTG calls, <font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, CO (poster) checks, <font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, Hero completes, BB checks.

Flop: (4 SB) A[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], 9[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], K[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(4 players)</font>
<font color="#CC3333">Hero bets</font>, BB folds, UTG calls, CO folds.

Turn: (3 BB) 9[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
<font color="#CC3333">Hero bets</font>, UTG calls.

River: (5 BB) 9[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
<font color="#CC3333">Hero bets</font>, <font color="#CC3333">UTG raises</font>, Hero...

Well that's one way to solve a kicker problem [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] Before you ask, no I'm not the least bit afraid of him showing a nine here; I would have heard about that on the turn. What I am afraid of is a split, and with 8 BB in the pot at this point a raise will feed the rake. I see the following scenarios if I 3-bet this:

<ul type="square">[*]Villan shows Ax and we split. The pot will have exceeded 10BB though so I'll be out half a small bet.[*]I have villain beat; he could easily have a King or could be bluffing. I'll win one small bet if he calls, 1.5BB if he caps.[*]And for completness' sake, I guess he could have a nine or some bizarrely slowplayed AA/KK, in which case I lose 2 BB after he caps it as well as a good chunk of my sanity.[/list]
If it weren't for the rake and split possibility this would be an easy 3-bet, but I really don't know here. Whaddya you think? Also, if you were the villain holding Kx, how would you have played this?