How to Play KK against an Aggressive Player

Your live $3/$6 No-Limit game at your local casino has been aggressive so far, with one player really splashing around. He has been playing almost every hand and is not afraid to bluff. That player is in the big blind in this hand. Players 3 and 5 limp to you and you make it $40 to go on the button. The big blind calls and the limpers fold. The flop comes J55; he checks and you bet $65. He flats and the turn comes 2. He checks and you bet $120; he check-raises to $300.

What should you do?

Call/call river
Raise all-in
Fold
Call/fold river

Correct Answer:

Call/call river. His most likely hand here is a bluff. Raising the turn does nothing but fold his bluffs out. If you flat-call the turn and let him shove the river, you can maximize the amount of money you can make.

I would fold . He is holding a set of fives.

sea bottom said:

I would fold . He is holding a set of fives.

Click to expand...

He just wrote that the player has been aggressive all the time - I would 'gamble' he had nothing or at least that my KK are stronger than what he has (only better hand is a set of 5, JJ or AA) - I would call the river and play from there, had it been a 'tight player' I would've thought twice and probably still called that river

Hmm... what are your stack sizes? If you are very deep stacked this could get dangerous pretty fast. I would actually think he hit a set of 2's in this case, but if he seems like he has been willing to bluff with a check-raise before, you can read him as bluffing either with nothing, an open-ended straight draw, or tptk.

I think your only real options here are call/raise river or fold the turn, you just have to trust your read.

Just something about terminology, you can't have a set of 5's here, a set is when you have 2 in your hand and 1 on the board. You have trip 5's if you have a 5 in your hand.

TexasPokerStar said:

The flop comes J55; he checks and you bet $65. He flats and the turn comes 2.

Click to expand...

Why did this super-aggressive player check the flop? I'm terrified of super-aggressive players checking. I would make that continuation bet, but when called, I'm trying to check it down. Super-aggressive players don't check flops unless they're shifting gears.

...the turn comes a deuce. He checks and I check behind him. What's the river come?