Big stack battle

[ChrisBCritter]

Read on villian is a pretty standard weak/strong, strong/weak... He got big by value betting, and calling bluffs with huge hands.

NL Texas Hold'em $6 Buy-in Trny:21824010 Level:5 Blinds(200/400) - Saturday, April 08, 05:19:58 ET 2006
Seat 5 is the button
Total number of players : 5
Seat 6: ChrisBCriter ( $4895 )
Seat 5: pico1122 ( $2222 )
Seat 1: donboy53 ( $8103 )
Seat 3: danbags ( $1788 )
Seat 9: bobmora ( $2992 )
Trny:21824010 Level:5
Blinds(200/400)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to ChrisBCriter [ Qd Kc ]
donboy53 raises [800].
danbags folds.
pico1122 folds.
ChrisBCriter calls [600].
bobmora folds.
** Dealing Flop ** [ 3d, 4s, Kd ]
ChrisBCriter bets [1500].
donboy53 is all-In [7303]
ChrisBCriter is all-In [2595]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 3s ]
** Dealing River ** [ 4h ]

Results in white

ChrisBCriter shows [ Qd, Kc ] two pairs, kings and fours.
donboy53 shows [ Ad, 9d ] two pairs, fours and threes.
donboy53 wins 3208 chips from side pot #1 with two pairs, fours and threes.
ChrisBCriter wins 10190 chips from the main pot with two pairs, kings and fours.

How often can you make this call with that read???

[mr tree the tree]

I actually fold preflop here, just because KQ isn't great OOP and in this situation you'd much prefer to be playing aggressively against the short stacks rather than calling raises from the big stack. But I'm probably too tight when it gets raised and I'm in the blinds...

[dan]

I fold KQ preflop to an UTG raiser. Unless i know that he is a pure idiot.

[ChrisBCritter]

Fold KQo to a min-raise 5 handed?? To me, that seems to be a little too tight... I think its worthy of blind defense most of the time, anyone else think calling PF is a bad play??

Nobody wants to talk post-flop??

[Renton]

I'm a semi-weak tournament player. However, I think its because I lack experience, because I almost always know theoretically what move is the right one in a tourney situation. End disclaimer.

I play this about the same.

Five handed KQ is a good hand even OOP. I think it is parallel to, if not ahead of, the raising range of said raiser. In a cash game or early in a tourney, this is a marginal to poor call. What make this situation special are the blinds. This really isn't a 'big stack battle" because the stacks are very shallow. On top of that, this is a very weak raise. Hero is getting 3.3:1 on this call. This means even if he is dominated by AK its worth a call.

After the flop, I think I play this a tad different. I'd probably give him a chance to bluff at the K and then I'd push over the top. As played this is a fairly obvious bluff/semibluff. I think he shows 99-JJ far more often than A high though (which means you are usually even BETTER off calling).

I don't think AK, KK, or AA (the only hands that realistically beat us) are playing this fast on an innocuous flop.

[givememyleg]

If you don't hit a K or a Q for TP you lose this hand to the chip leader. This is why I fold preflop.

As the others said, pick on mid stacks rather than getting involded with a hand OOP with the chip leader, unless you have a hand.

As it played out, I am going AI on that flop too.. and if the chip leader has a monster say AK, then I'm doing broke.

You don't really have to "defend your blind" persay against the big stack with a hand like KQ. Keep forcing the shorties to make decisions.