$5 - How good is your read?

[mikeneron]

Villian was 22/0 over 54 hands. What could he possibly be limping with here? I put him on something like KJ or KT. Can we rule out him having a better K than us? Only K that beats us is AK or KK...highly unlikely as he would have raised preflop. I guess he could have something like A3. Do you keep firing after the flop bet gets called?

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t100 (6 handed) Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver Cards)

Hero (t1585)
UTG (t3080)
MP (t2375)
CO (t3110)
Button (t1645)
SB (t1705)

Preflop: Hero is BB with , .
1 fold, MP calls t100, 2 folds, SB completes, Hero checks.

Flop: (t300) , , (3 players)
SB checks, Hero bets t200, MP calls t200, SB folds.

Turn: (t700) (2 players)
Hero bets t400, MP calls t400.

River: (t1500) (2 players)
Hero bets t885 (All-In), MP calls t885.

Final Pot: t3270

[kmind]

very nicely played and your whole first paragraph is what I would think too.

oh and I would raise this up preflop

[taipan168]

I think you played this absolutely fine, nice massaging of the pot size to get it AI on the river without overbetting.

oh and I would raise this up preflop

I wouldn't - don't want to play a big pot with KQo when we are OOP postflop (and remember $5.50 opps will generally always call this raise particularly with opp's stack size).

[kmind]

but what about KQs?


but in all seriousness I think KQs is too good not to raise limpers with. If they call a lot after limping then go apeshit and start double/triple barrelling depending on how often they call flop too...it's fun. Just my opinion.

[donkbee]

raise to 500 and shove any flop?

[oskar]

I think raising pre-flop might be the worst possible play here. Do you want to put in a quarter of your stack on K high? What if no King or Queen hits? Do you follow up?
A shove would probably be better. I prefer to check.

[Illfavor]

I think raising pre-flop might be the worst possible play here.

Wouldn't folding be a worse play? Raising at least has SOME chance of winning the pot right there, but folding in the BB...Wow. :P

I agree with the check. Very well played, sir.

[donkbee]

I think raising pre-flop might be the worst possible play here.

You don't like raising when you have the best hand preflop?

[hangchiong]

i would have done the same,check pre-flop,although you might be ahead pre-flop,but then again,raising would be good too,but enough to force MP out,as SB has most probably rags.with a good read,i might go all in(if the blinds were at 100/200.

as taipan said,raise to 300-500,MP might called,consider the buy-in,as the blind size.

but overall,well played.

[donkbee]

as taipan said,raise to 300-500

300 is not enough. What is your plan on the flop when you get a call?

Oh and taipan said he doesn't agree with a raise.

[kmind]

I think raising pre-flop might be the worst possible play here.

You don't like raising when you have the best hand preflop?

and come on nits we win this hand so much regardless if they call our raise preflop or not

[oskar]

I think raising pre-flop might be the worst possible play here.

You don't like raising when you have the best hand preflop?

I don't want to build a big pot with K high in a format where I have to finish ITM about 1/3 of the time to have a positive ROI.
If you follow up on the flop, you already have a big portion of your stack comitted. If you don't follow up you loose a lot of value. I think you will win bigger pots by just checking here. You don't want KT to fold preflop. What do you assume the calling range is? any A? There are some pitiable retards at these stakes but most people do play somewhat reasonable poker, and without a read I can't just assume that my opponents are barely housebroken.
If the hero had about twice as many chips, raising would be much more attractive.

[taipan168]

I agree with oskar, I would rather shove this preflop rather than raise less than AI if I was not going to check it. My second alternative would be to make it 500 and shove any flop as Courtie said. No way do I want to standard raise this, have to put out c-bet and potentially then have to give up having burned half my stack.

I have a slight preference to check rather than shove as 20/0-type players can often limp hands like pocket pairs and better Ax-type hands which they won't fold to a shove.