Second pair on the river in position, high stakes no limit

DailyHandQuiz

Game type: 100/200 no limit cash, Poker Stars
Your image: Aggressive
Opponent’s image: A little call-happy
Your hand: K♥K♦

This hand is taken from actual game play at the Poker Stars 100 / 200 table between Brian ‘aba20′ Townsend and teacuppoker. You’ll be standing in for Townsend

The setup: You’re playing some deep-stacked, high stakes poker heads up online. You’re getting the better of the match so far, but not by a wide margin.

This hand, you’re dealt red kings in the SB. You raise 3x preflop and your opponent calls. The flop comes:

A♠J♣9♣

The BB checks and you check behind. The turn is a 2♠. Now the BB leads for 800 into 1200 and you call. The river brings the 2♥ and the BB checks.

What’s your play?

Loading ...

7 COMMENTS (Jump to comment form)

DHQ Staff

Here you’re balancing the value you get from weaker hands calling you against the value you lose when weaker hands check raise you.

If there was zero possibility of a check-raise, I think this would be an easy value bet. You showed weakness on two streets and the board is very draw-heavy, meaning that your opponent is going to have an easy time putting you on a range that an underpair to your KK will feel comfortable calling with. It’s true that they’d probably play most of their weaker aces the same way, but I think they have non-ace hands they call with more than they have ace hands.

Since your opponent is a bit more of a calling station than a maniac, I don’t think you get raised by weaker much here. It’s probably a little borderline, but given how the match is going I think you should bet for value and to avoid a showdown.

What actually happened: Townsend checked behind. teacup showed KTo for a miss and Townsend won the pot.

[Reply]

kaimano

I bet, he has a jack or nothing. He doesn’t have an ace or he’d have protected it on the flop against club draw.

[Reply]

jhs

well i see no value in bettin there is no way he has a callable hand against you i put him on on sum sort of missed draw and the cards proved it uve played these pocket kings by the book really and dont c y it is bad to show them towsend is a really agressive sick player and i wud luv to wipe that smug grin of his face one day when i have the bank roll to do it.

[Reply]

5types

I would probably bet as the write up says the opponent is call happy.

Against a more aggressive trappy player its a check for me.

[Reply]

Moe D

I bet here he could call with a pair of J’s or an underpair.

[Reply]

_CityBorn_

This is one of those spots where most of the time you should bet for value, but you kick yourself when you get check raised. Against an aggressive opponent a lot of times I’ll check this, but the better, +EV play is to bet, especially against an opponent who’s not that aggressive. I agree with kai, he’d protect his hand with a weak ace on a draw heavy board. Hes either got a monster or the kind of hand that pays us off. Most of the time we get paid here. -or at the very least we don’t show, which is an undervalued part of a hand that I consider a “win” by itself. Keep em guessing…you get paid more in future rounds….

[Reply]

DEF

At this point in the hand, I would rule out 2x. A 3BB raise by me with position would indicate villain has a hand probably in the top 30% preflop. There are a lot of aces in the to 30%.

A check post flop is consistent with slowplaing this hand which I would do 2/3 of the time. After fourth street he bets 2/3 the pot which is a little light for me with a made hand, but not unimaginable. I wouldn’t do it again on the river, but again this is not unimaginable.

The odds are great, but the ace is scary. I’m happy to take 2800 (or 14xBB) with second best pair. I’d put out a 1/2-pot bet if I had a read on my opponent. Since nothing is known, I’d just check.

[Reply]