How should Kings be played

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jjcool84

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I am curious of people's thoughts on playing kings on micro and small stakes. Kings have been one of my biggest losing hands and it does get very frustrating. I know some I have played very poorly but the rest of the time I'm running into aces. It seems I either win the blinds or I'm getting 3 and then 5bet by aces. If a tight reg is 5betting me pf should I be throwing them away?
 
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Scrover

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You only run your kings into aces on a full ring table (9 handed) about 1 in 26 times. And even then, if you do, you will win once every five hands with your kings. As Dan Harrington said "I'm not good enough to fold kings preflop and neither are you".

There is a big difference between kings and aces. The kings have one overcards and the aces don't. 23% of the time an ace will come on the flop. With most people playing Ax preflop, if an ace comes, be prepared to check fold. After all, your kings are only a pair.

Can you tell me a bit about how you play kings postflop and preflop? Then I might be able to help you a little bit.
 
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enesem

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Here's a strategy I have settled on:

Pre flop, raise to 3xbb (all my raises are 3bb, so no-one knows what it represents).

If I am re-raised, I will suspect AA, KK, QQ, or AK. Depending on the profile of the re-raiser, I will call, sometimes re-raise over the top, but usually just call a re-raise.

On the flop, early I c-bet regardless. If there is A on the flop and I am called or raised, I generally invest no more.

If I am bet into, I re-raise, if called or re-raised again, I put nothing more in.

This has saved me losing big all in hands, and winning hands before the river, so my KK earnings are on the rise.
 
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5xbet preflop. if ace comes bet half pot if reraise bail.if no ace bet the pot and feel it out
 
magicius

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5xbet preflop. if ace comes bet half pot if reraise bail.if no ace bet the pot and feel it out

+1
Most of time if someone 3b me i shove... Must stop doing that :)

Sent from my HTC Desire X using Tapatalk
 
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jjcool84

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Ok so here is one of my hand histories with k's on 888. A 9 hand game, 0.15/.30

Villian in bb with 95 hands vp 9 and pf 8 and $63.57
Hero on button with $37.93

UTG+1 raises to 0.78
Folded around, Hero raises to $1.86
SB fold and Villian raises to $5
UTG+1 folds
Hero shoves and Villian shows aces

The one other side note to this was early in the session villain had called from bb with q,3s and I had a ace high flush draw which I bet hard including a river bluff and he called me down with 2 pair.

Was shoving here a bad idea?
 
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tohos

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Your 3b is too small, I usually do 9x/10x as a standard no matter the cards(unless they're short/medium stacked then its 8x/9x), more if there are callers.
When you get 4b by a tight player, you are usually not getting called by worse hands when u 5b shove unless they are bad.
Calling is the better decision as you will keep worse hands in, if he 4bets with non AA hands at all, and you get to play in position post flop.

Also would be good to know villain's 3b% and whether he is capable of 3b/4b/5b bluffing out of the blinds.
Regardless, calling is still the best move as you keep the bluffs/weaker hands in and he'll usually fire at least one cbet and be committed with QQ/JJ on a safe flop. Calling and getting it in on flop with no Ace is the best play imo.
 
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Not really, only hands he can have are AA, maybe the other two kings, QQ, maybe JJ and maybe AK. But it always does depend on your opponent. Some opponents, I might fold, but most I will call with. It is an interesting spot though. QQ, okay, I see that you might fold there, but KK isn't really a fold I can do in microstakes unless it's a clear read.

As for the tight regs 5bet question is, how tight? Do you mean nit tight? Or just a tight agressive? If it's a nit, how nitty? These are the factors you need to consider when doing this. Most people's ranges are polarized to AA, KK, maybe QQ and AK (JJ maybe and AQs rarely).

Strategy for kings might be to slowplay, but abort mission if an ace comes. Don't do it that often though, then it makes it look like you will always slowplay your monsters. Occasionally limp if your table knows basic strategy (i.e. raising preflop, c-betting) and you will usually get a raise. Then you can possibly raise back.
 
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cleiton1988

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Preflop a big raise 3bb or all in a situation that your opponent raise your 3bb but if he call your raise you see thr flop if the A doesnt exist i would do a big bet but if it is do a 3bb bet and if he reraise fold he ad the BOSS.
 
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you should be adjusting your sizing to position and opening smaller in later position ( CO and Button for example) is better bc you don't mind when people flat you behind your range

your problem likely isn't how to play KK, likely it is your play overall

Try to think of reasons why you want to vary your sizing and what type of people/ situations should you vary
 
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Generally willing to get it in pre flop. Big bets and raises. Trying to reach commitment decision on or before the flop. With smallish stacks I often bet / raise bigger and still get action with big hands. (I am very aggressive anyway, so that may be a factor) If stacks are fairly deep I like standard raises or limp and back raise big with the intent of bloating the pot so it plays like smaller stacks.

Aggressive, but cautious post flop. Play after the flop is very player/ situation dependent. I am usually C-betting even with an A on the flop vs. one or two players. Willing to fold if action gets to hot and heavy or the board is really scary, especially if stacks are deep.
 
Aces2w1n

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Gii pre no matter what resistence your facing.

Bet every street 3/4 to pot if theres no Ace out there and less than 2 people in the pot :)

3 people you really need to make sure the texture of the board and make sure your not giving people the right price to chase their drawing hands, that's the biggest mistake known and it can often be due to being afraid of losing before you've already played the hand.

Read up on Way behind/Way thread and that could help... I find against bad players it does but the good players will know their Ax rags are good unless ofc your even better and keep them guessing and disguise all ur hands well. *balanced hand ranges is important as well*


One scenario with way behind/way ahead.

u 3bet and he calls.

A89 comes out on the board.

he checks and now you check... Which means now if he has QQ or JJ you should be able to draw some value out of him and keep those weaker hands in... Where as if you raise the flop al those hands you want to call will fold. It's a tough one though to get your head around.
 
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crow27

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shoving was not bad. I would have 3 bet to 2- 2.25. Villain happened to catch aces here. It sucks, but I think it's a standard line at micro level.

The only other thing you could have done was to call in position and if an ace flops, you can give up the hand. But if there was no ace on the flop, you're probably getting it in unless there is a gross flop.
 
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rumsey182

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Gii pre no matter what resistence your facing.

Bet every street 3/4 to pot if theres no Ace out there and less than 2 people in the pot :)

3 people you really need to make sure the texture of the board and make sure your not giving people the right price to chase their drawing hands, that's the biggest mistake known and it can often be due to being afraid of losing before you've already played the hand.

Read up on Way behind/Way thread and that could help... I find against bad players it does but the good players will know their Ax rags are good unless ofc your even better and keep them guessing and disguise all ur hands well. *balanced hand ranges is important as well*


One scenario with way behind/way ahead.

u 3bet and he calls.

A89 comes out on the board.

he checks and now you check... Which means now if he has QQ or JJ you should be able to draw some value out of him and keep those weaker hands in... Where as if you raise the flop al those hands you want to call will fold. It's a tough one though to get your head around.
this logic is so sub optimal it shows your not understanding how to play postflop at all

please try not to use words like "always" and "no matter what" even if it is +EV doesn't mean it is optimal EV play

think in terms of EV and ranges
 
Dank Hugh

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the situation you are in determines how you play a hand more so than the actual hand itself.
 
FanatsLV

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I hate when i have a kings but when go flop in 90% there is a A and someone have A and i lose i just hate a kings... in onetime i play multitable and in two table in preflop i got KK and in bought table i lose sad but true
 
LD1977

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Fast and hard.

Stack off preflop 100% of the time if possible.

On the flop be careful of flopped Aces and of course that are only 1 pair unimproved (but sets/2P are rare).
 
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