I Guess There's a Reason I Lose with Pocket Kings

I haven’t done a post about a really bad result with my “favorite” hand in a while, so I guess it’s about time for one.

My original intention, when I started writing this post, was for it to be a “woe is me” post…”see what happens when I play pocket Kings?”

But writing up the hand made me realized that what I thought was bad luck for me was really bad play by me.  It wasn’t until I put the words down on paper (or in a word processor) that it really hit me how badly I butchered this. 

I should probably be too embarrassed to post this, but since I found it so helpful to me to write it up, I figured that by actually posting this, it will penetrate my brain even better so I don’t duplicate this type of play.  Plus, getting additional feedback from my readers could also be helpful.  And maybe others can learn from it.

The other night at 1/2, I was in for $300 and down to about $180 (I had bought in for $200 and had to add another $100, if you must know).  So it wasn’t a good night.  Nothing out of the ordinary, just could not get anywhere.

So in the big blind, I looked down at the dreaded pocket Kings.  The under-the-gun player opened for $6, a rather small raise.  Two others called the $6 and then it was on me.  I probably should have raised more, but I put out $27.  I think $30 would have been better, in hindsight (3X the bet, plus the extra two calls) I wish I could tell you how I came up with $27 but I can’t.

The preflop raiser called, the others folded so we were heads up, and the flop was 10-9-5, rainbow.  Pretty good flop for Kings, and with a stack-to-pot ratio of less than 2.5, my thought was I should be willing to get my entire stack in if I could.

I bet $40 and got a call.  The turn was the 4 of diamonds, the second diamond on the board.  I thought about putting it all in there.  I guess I should have.  But I decided it would be better to get half in then and put the rest in on the river.  The too-small flop re-raise was a minor error.  But I think my bet on the turn was a major, major error. 

The pot was over $140 on the turn, and my remaining stack was only around $110 or so.  So there was really no good reason not to get it all in on the turn.  Damn that was stupid to put only half in and save half for the river.  I really should have known better.

He called and we saw a 5 of diamonds on the river.  Despite the three diamonds and the paired board, I went ahead with my plan of getting the rest of my stack into the pot.  Well you know, I didn’t have to do that either.  I might have saved myself $55 if I had just checked.  But you know, I was planning to put all the money in when I saw the flop, so why stop now?

He called and asked if I had a boat.  Then he said, “I have a flush.”  He turned over Jack-8 of diamonds.  So it was runner-runner flush.  But of course, he had flopped an open-ender.  That, coupled with the fact that I didn’t bet enough, made all of his post flop play perfectly understandable.

Less understandable was his preflop play.  I personally don’t get making such a small preflop raise, under-the-gun, with such a crappy hand.  Jack-8 sooooted?  That’s not a limping hand in early position, let alone a raising one.  And the raise size is too small to get as many folds as you’d probably want.  You’re building a big pot for a crappy hand you have to play out of position.

But what I really don’t get is his calling my re-raise.  Ok, I should have bet a little more, but even so, calling $21 with such a weak hand?  True, he’s going to have position on me, but his call makes it more likely someone behind him will call with position on both of us.

But who am I to criticize his play?  I butchered the hand pretty good, and didn’t even realize it until I started writing about it.  My initial reaction was more like, “Oh, just another typical pocket Kings hand for me.”  But I’m glad I documented the hand so I was able to realize my own errors vividly.

Note:  If the guy was willing to call $22 preflop with that hand, I’m not sure if anything I could have differently after the flop could have changed the outcome.  But that doesn’t matter.  I should have played it better, whether it would have made a difference this time or not.

That’s it…..getting my Kings bested by Jack-8 suited convinced me to stop playing for the evening.  I quit so I wouldn’t be playing on tilt.

Now, the cartoon below….I’m borrowing it because no less an expert than Poker Grump thought of me when he saw it.  I must admit that it does appear that the creator might just be familiar with this blog.  Also want to give shout outs to Robbie of Cardplayerlifesyle.com for tweeting the cartoon and PokerStrategy.com, the original source of the cartoon.

And to finish off, it’s been called to my attention that the last couple of posts of been lacking in pictures of lovely ladies that some of my readers have come to expect.  And after losing my stack (so-to-speak) and realizing I played the hand badly, I need something to cheer myself up.  So these pics might just do it.