Split kings hand

[rtrombone]

20-40 stud at the Bellagio.

Guy to my right limps with the 4 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]. I complete with (K6)K. Everyone folds to the limper, who now raises.

A note about this guy. Earlier he limped with a jack and I completed with split queens. Everyone folded, including two aces and a king. He called. On 4th he paired his jack and bet. I thought and mucked. He showed me trip jacks. He's a fairly tight, competent player.

I think and 3-bet. He calls. On 4th I catch an ace and he catches a spade. I bet, he calls. On 5th I catch a jack and he catches an offsuit ten. I bet, he calls. On 6th he catches another non-spade ten and bets. I call. He bets 7th in the dark. All I have is a pair of kings. What's your play?

[Fraubump]

What are the possibilities? What would he have reraised you with: higher pair or trips or 3 straightflush seems like it, unless he has reason to believe that you are bluffing or that he can bluff you off your hand.

pocket pair: you're beat.
flush draw plus pair: lots of outs to beat you.

With the pair showing I'd fold. Maybe you have a crying call, but it seems slim.

[Andy B]

I wouldn't fault anyone for folding, but I think that there's enough of a chance that the other guy is on a flush draw that you can call. I'll grant you that a flush draw with a pair of Tens has about half the deck to beat your two Kings, but you don't need to win very often to make it a profitable call. Even if it isn't quite a profitable call, at least you get to see what this mug is limp/re-raising with.

Opponent's play is somewhat consistent with rolled-up trips. He limp/re-raises, and when he sees that you like your hand, he decides to slow-play and let you bluff off your money. He might have been waiting until sixth to pop you, and then when he hits the pair, he can't raise anymore, unless you'll fall for a check-raise, but ol' rtrombone didn't just fall off the back of the turnip truck. If I had a full house, though, I wouldn't bet the river in the dark. I'd check my river card, to give you some hope that Kings-up or whatever is good. This seems like a strong-means-weak-type of dark bet, but again, he has a zillion outs to beat you.

He might also have had Aces in the hole, but I think he pops you by fifth street with those. So what happened?

[rtrombone]

I was pretty certain I was beat here. I actually thought his most probable hand was aces in the hole, with which he was planning to check-raise on 6th. I mean, if he has queens in the hole, he has to be worried I'll at least consider raising him if I make kings up, right? (I'd fold to a 3-bet.)

But I had an ace in my hand. Plus, the dark bet struck me as strange. I agree with Andy that this means weakness just as often as it means strength.

In my concealed queens hand against the blonde lady, I'd showed him my hand before folding. So he knew I was capable of laying down a hand.

Still, this guy just didn't strike me as the type to put a play on someone. He was conservative. I probably should have mucked. But I called. He had the other two kings in the hole.

And then the hand made sense.

[MRBAA]

I think your plays and thinking were all good. I wouldn't want to play in that game too often if all the players were like the two you describe.

[rtrombone]

The 20 stud game was pretty bad. I went to play hold 'em shortly after this hand. I played some 15 stud, too, and it wasn't very good. I managed to book a couple wins but I won a lot more at hold 'em. While I consider myself a far better hold 'em than stud player, I really feel that most people would have had trouble in those stud games.

The 40 stud game is supposed to be the best at the Bellagio. Weird how that works, huh? I'll have to check it out next time.

[Al_Capone_Junior]

I think there is enough in the pot to cover the doubt. I would call, tho expect to usually lose.

al