It's head up on 0.25/0.50 cash game table and I've been dealt Pocket KK's

Buy-in was $40 but at the time I was at $38.93 after playing like 20 hands trying to get back up above $40.

Flop comes out Q, 3, 2

The pot was at $1.15 So I bet $1.50

Villian calls.

River comes out......now it's Q, 3, 2, 10

I think the coast is still clear but instead of a ALL-IN I bet $3.50.

Villian calls and the river comes out....Q, 3, 2, 10, Q and the villain takes a minute and he goes ALL-IN!

I'm thinking he has three-of-a-kind Queens but then again he never raised me. He just called me the whole way so he could be bluffing. My dumbass called.....

He had 5,Q! (Shocker right!) by by $40

Please analyze and tell me exactly what I did wrong. I believe I should have gone all-in while all the cards were beneath my KK's or when he went All-In.....cut my losses and folded. I would have just lost about $5-$6 and easily made it back up in another hand.

I made $10 of that back so far

Without any information is not clear. Its a huge overbet on the river so maybe he nas you beat. I would take note on him and next time bet bigger, he seems to call huge bets with top pair

Why is there $ 1.15 in the pot, did you call with two kings ???

Originally Posted by 0546474

Why is there $ 1.15 in the pot, did you call with two kings ???

Limp in with KK, apparently wanted to lure,lost on business, you won't go far with such a game

sometimes villian act depending on the kicker, in this case it was bad kicked low 5 so that's why he checked and didn't raise you. once another Q came out he knew you didnt have the Q by the way you where betting so his kicker didnt matter. he goes all in hoping you have strong hand so you can call and you did. this is one of those hands that you have to bet big preflop and Q5 probably wont call so you will take only the blinds, if they see a Q on the flop they probably will keep calling, he did get lucky on the river though.

As some people pointed out, there's some information missing. Villain was playing at the big blind position?
It seems that you did not raise pre-flop, so that's first mistake I'd say.
Given that you didn't raise pre-flop, villain might not think you have KK or AA, think yourself if you're villain, if you had top pair, your opponent didn't raise pre-flop, would you fold here? Probably not as the board is not very coordinated either. When you bet $3.50 on the turn, villain still might be thinking you had a 10. In heads-up play, having top pair is usually very strong, and you haven't really shown him any real strength to fold his top pair.
Of course the river Q is a bummer for you, but even so, I think the game would've been different if you raised pre-plop.

Wrong:
limp with KK - so you play vs random hand. I see no reason to call overbet on river. Look like only 12-15$ was in bank.

This has kinda be drilled home already but just for emphasis at this point I guess, limping with KK (if you did) is absolutely the worst way to play here. Of course he had Q5 because you let him see the flop for free. If you aren't going to bet, then trash hands are going to get a chance to become decent. KK is a good hand preflop but you gotta play it well for it to pan out. This is a lot more on you limping leading to losing than a bad beat, if you would have bet you'd likely have won the hand outright

You definitely should’ve shoved
after the flop that’s nasty hand to go out too. However it did show potential for a bluff trips hand too... better luck next time.

Well for me the only problem was limping with KK so it's easy to ask to be caught by the variance

It doesn't matter if you go all in or not. The Queen will still come on the river. The opponent had a top pair and does not intend to throw it away. You didn't think about which hand the other player might have called all the time. Don't fall in love with your KK pocket pair. A big bet on the river points to queens. You should fold if you don't know how often your opponent is bluffing.

Limping is a strategy that's okay to employ if the opponent is known to be aggressive, in which case you can exploit that person's aggression against them. But, if you don't know your opponent, I'm raising this hand all the time, to build a pot early, either to win the villain's entire stack, or just to induce a fold on later streets, while banking a profit.

Now, you probably still lose your stack because villain, if they're REALLY sticky, won't fold, but you can't be results oriented here. Had you shoved on the turn, they'll likely fold and you'll win a small pot. But that goes back to the raise pre-flop, you could have shoved on the turn, and if they folded, you'd have made a slightly larger profit.

But against unknown opponents, limping is costing you really good equity especially on your big hands, and you are against villain's entire range, so there's more bad cards potentially for you than good, and even if it helps you, a good player may apply pressure to force you to fold.

As for that river card, you got unlucky, and I think I'd fold to shove there, because unless they're bluffing, which is possible, you're losing to Qx, and given the limp pre, Qx is VERY much in villain's range, and given their calls on the flop and turn, it's more likely they have Qx than a bluff. In a way, your betting polarized their range to either Qx or nothing, and ask yourself if villain is willing to risk their stack with a huge overbet if they are bluffing, and would you do that yourself?

Yea i am a nit. If I have a premium hand I am not going to limp in. No matter what the pros recommend. I refuse to let a pro who calls with rag rag, pull a straight or flush out his you know where.

The other thing to be careful for is to lose small pot hands, and win the big pot hands. So if QQ was already on the board, can you beat villain if they are holding Q. So I try to keep the pot small vs. the all in route. But if I was holding the Q, then I would be doing the all in route vs. the small ball route.

Hello,


I don't think you played this hand wrong. Obviously opponent was dominated and your over betting was working perfectly. Unfortunately villian gets lucky on the river. It might be hard to fold to this river jam from villian but it is pretty obvious he could have a set or trips with how you were overbetting pot and villian was calling down. Tough river