Is This How I Should Play The Dreaded Pocket Kings?

This is about my last session from last week, the very same session where we were serenaded by the guys singing from the sports bar (as told here).  I’ll only talk about three hands.

It was a good table, a few really bad players, some solid ones and a lot of big stacks. Most of the players were willing to put chips in play and not always with very good hands.  And of course, I was mostly card dead the entire night.  I still had around $200 from winning/losing a few small pots.  In early position I looked down at pocket 10’s—easily the best hand I’d seen in at least an hour.  I opened the pot for $8—my standard open in a Vegas 1/2 game.

In hindsight, I should have bet bigger.  I hadn’t really opened very many pots myself to get much feedback that way, but I could see that the game was loose enough to handle a bigger opening raise.  But there were at least a couple of players there savvy enough to remember that I opened to $8 a few times and maybe would thus think I was changing the opening bet based on my hand strength.

Anyway, I was only called by five players.  So I wasn’t really liking my 10’s right then.  I figured I’d just check/fold unless I hit my set—assuming there were over cards, as they almost surely would be.  But in fact, the flop came 9-7-5, two hearts (I didn’t have the 10 of hearts).  Well, in theory, an over pair is the next best thing to catching your set, right?  I decided to bet, and I put out $35.  The next player to act was a friendly British fellow who had about $400 in front of him.  He seemed like a solid player, but hadn’t been one of the more aggressive players at the table.  In fact, he had won most of that money before I got there.  So I was really surprised when he announced, “all in.”

Strange.  What could he have?  It quickly folded back to me.  I couldn’t believe my 10’s were good.  I assumed a set, and the odd shove there was based on fear of the flush draw (and maybe the straight draw).  Alternatively, I suppose he could be semi-bluffing the flush draw himself, but shoving instead of just raising seemed pretty odd if that were the case.  And it was not impossible that he had 8-6 and flopped the straight, and that the shove was to protect against the flush, same as if he had a set.  Two pair didn’t seem likely…but then, if he could have played 8-6 I guess he could have played 9-7 just as well.

I just couldn’t see stacking off most of a buy-in with just a pair of 10’s.  Not to this guy.  Now, there were a couple of other players I’d seen make some bad bluffs.  If it had been one of them (one in particular), I probably would have called.  But not him.

He dragged in the pot and much to my surprise, he showed his hand.  Two Kings!  Man, I would have dreaded them if I had called.  I shrugged and he said, “I had to do that, because of the hearts.”  I nodded. Not exactly a good value bet but I wasn’t going to tell him.

I was actually more interested in the preflop action.  How could he not three-bet me with those cowboys?  So I said to him, inquisitively, “You didn’t raise me preflop?”  He said something like, “No…I wanted to see what came out on the flop.”  I asked, “Afraid of an Ace, huh?” and he said yes, that’s exactly what it was.

Wow.  Does anybody like his play there?  Not three-betting with Kings because you want to make sure there’s no Ace on the flop?  What th-?  Should I try this play with Kings (in my case, could it hurt?).

Seriously, my first thought was that this guy reads my blog and is more afraid of Kings than I am.  I mean, it was still early position, so when he called he had to know he’d be up against more than a few hands.  And although a good percentage of the pots at this table were raised preflop, there wasn’t all that much three-betting and there was no particular player prone to three-betting a lot.  So I don’t think he was hoping for someone to come over the top pre so he could four-bet.  I really don’t get it.

He’s got those Kings up against five other hands. There’s actually pretty good odds someone flopped a better hand.  And although my stack was only half of his, there were several stacks in the hand that were as big or bigger than his.  Since he was second to act, he could have lost it all there with that play. He could easily be losing to a set, or a straight.  Although he’d seen enough of my play to reasonably conclude I didn’t have 8-6, you couldn’t say the same for others in the hand.  I mean the last player to call had pot odds to call with just about anything.  And you know, I’d have probably played it the same way if I had had pocket 9’s and flopped top set. He couldn’t rule that out.

Basically, he risked $400 for an $80 pot.  Weird.  Or am I wrong?

A little bit later I was in the cutoff with 9-8 offsuit.  One of the looser players had raised to $10 or $12, there’d been two callers, and I decided to call.  Trying to stretch my game a little, at least when I’m in late position.  Unfortunately, after the button called, the small blind—the Brit from the previous hand—popped it to $25.  Hmm…well, at least I knew he didn’t have Kings.  The three players in front of me called, and then the button put her chips out to call before it was her turn.  Ok, so I knew this was gonna be a huge pot pre, and I couldn’t see folding there.  If I smash the flop, maybe I can make a really big score.  I called and the button called, this time in turn.

So five of us saw a flop of King-9-3, two clubs (again, I had zero clubs).  The small blind put out a bet of $45 and it folded to me.  I probably had $150 or a bit less.  It was maybe a small enough stack to risk it all, but I only had middle pair and had to assume I was likely behind. I couldn’t see calling, especially considering my two pair or trips (if I caught either) certainly might not be good anyway.  Even though it was a relatively small bet for the size of the pot, I folded.

Does anyone think I should have called?  Or even come over the top with a shove?

The last player (the button) raised, and the Brit shoved. The lady on the button had put more than half her stack out with her raise, so I was surprised she hesitated to call, but she tanked for a bit.  Then she called.  The next card was an 8, which I was not happy about it.  The river was a blank.  The lady showed 7-4 of clubs.  She lost her whole stack chasing a baby flush. She immediately cut up to go to the ATM for more money. That was nice.  The Brit showed Ace-King and took it down.

It’s results-oriented thinking to dwell on the fact that I would have had a triple up if I had called the flop bet.  Except that, then I would have had to have called an all-in before seeing the turn card.  Of course by then I would have been pot committed. So maybe I should have just shoved the flop in the first place, with middle pair?  I dunno, I think I made the right play but let me know.

As the night wore on, I dropped below $100 and realized I was not willing to put any more chips in play.  I’d play one more orbit and call it a night.  I was down to $68 when I had pocket 6’s and limped in after a few others had.  No one raised, and five of us saw the flop.  It had a 6 on it and I didn’t pay much attention to the rest because I knew with my small stack I was going to get it all in if I possibly could.

I led out for $10 and only one player called—the loosest, worst player at the table. He was under-the-gun and had checked. He had visited the ATM several times during the evening to reload.  Earlier he had been called on a few outrageous all-in bluffs but lately had been a bit more restrained.  I bet $20 on a blank turn and he called.  When the river hit, whatever it was, this time he led out for $35.  And I was wondering if I would be able to get called on the river!  I put all my chips out and it turned out that it was $36.  Then I did something that maybe was inappropriate.  I said to the guy, “Take your time deciding, it’s a whole dollar.”

Now I do something like that when I’m not in the hand if the player who has a buck or two to call is sitting near me.  Technically, it violates the “one player to a hand rule” but it’s so obviously a joke and no one is ever folding for a buck. I’ve never gotten in trouble for it.  But this time, I was in the hand and I had what I was sure was the winning hand.  So does it come across as rubbing it in to the other player?  I kind of felt bad afterward. Plus I think I actually confused him a bit with saying that (as I said, he wasn’t a very good player—but he was certainly no novice—just bad).  Anyway, he threw in a buck and I showed my set.  He had Queen-8 for top pair.  He said the only reason he played Queen-8 was he had won his last pot with it.  But really, who was he kidding?  That was solidly in the middle of his early position limping range.

I kept my vow that being my last orbit, and that double up meant I only dropped $70 for the session, my last for the trip.

Now, I mentioned the player to my immediate for the last two hands was a woman.  I tried to find a picture on the internet that looked like her, for illustration purposes. I could not.  So I found a pic of this lady below, who could not look more different than the woman sitting next to me.  So perhaps this will help the visual—just imagine a woman who could not possbly look more different  than the woman below.

Oh, and in case that pic isn’t sufficient, here’s another pic of the same woman to further help with your mind’s eye.