https://www.cardschat.com/replayer/424C4IPT6

Hello guys, it was SCOOP tournament for 5,5$. How do you play top pair with second best kicker on the flop on defending big blind? I usually defending big blind for playing check/call the flop with a little worse hand. In this situation I felt very strong with top pair and second best kicker. The turn card ruin me the action. The turn card wasn't good for me and I decided give up this hand. Opponent win big double up with straight versus set before this situation. Besides he won one pot due to his good read. He was playing good. I think that maybe better for me play this hand by check calling the flop, the turn and the river, because we were deep stacks on the table. What is the best line in this situation? What are yours opinions about this situation?

Tough to figure. He could easily have 55 or Ax spades. Not much you could do but fold the turn, after he re-raised your check raise and he shoves the A. It's hard to stand up to a bully when you have a marginal hand.

Check/raising flop is certainly fine. Assuming we're 3betting AK and KK pre, this is one of your best hands (besides K5s,K2s, 55,22 and 52s). We're also going to get called by a lot of worse hands (Kx, some FD, some pp etc.). x/c is fine, x/r is also fine and since this is a micro MTT probably preferred even. You're easily going to stack so many worse Kx hands here, while at the same time charging draws.

Yeah turn sucks but probably fine to fold KQ here against population (like how many flop 3B and turn jam on an overcard are going to be a bluff in the micros?). Even a bunch of AsXs that may want to call flop/check back turn is probably getting ripped in by Villain. We're never getting 2:1 here vs any micro reg, so you played it well imo.

Edit: for clarification, 'you're easily going to stack so many worse Kx hands here' is referring to check raising flop. Once he 3Bs flop and rips turn, we're going to be beat very often obviously.

I think by default you played this hand well. On the flop with KQ you should check raise when villain bets small, like 33%, and call when villain bets big, like 66%. However, villain bet half pot so, I think both options are fine. You can get called with Kx and flush draws, so check raising is good. However, I think you should check raise little bit bigger, like 7500 chips. You should check raise small like this on super dry, polarizing boards like 993. Turn check is obviously good. Now turn decision after villain shoves, it's tough. You unblock all flush draws and villain also should fold a lot of Ax hands when you check raise. He shouldn't have many Ax hands here, but villain still might have them because of your small check raising size. If villain is super aggressive I would call, if villain is passive it's insta fold. By default, at these stakes people don't bluff enough, so it should be easy fold. Well played in my opinion.

Originally Posted by jaworek1405

https://www.cardschat.com/replayer/424C4IPT6

Hello guys, it was SCOOP tournament for 5,5$. How do you play top pair with second best kicker on the flop on defending big blind? I usually defending big blind for playing check/call the flop with a little worse hand. In this situation I felt very strong with top pair and second best kicker. The turn card ruin me the action. The turn card wasn't good for me and I decided give up this hand. Opponent win big double up with straight versus set before this situation. Besides he won one pot due to his good read. He was playing good. I think that maybe better for me play this hand by check calling the flop, the turn and the river, because we were deep stacks on the table. What is the best line in this situation? What are yours opinions about this situation?

Thank U 4 posting

Watching each street
What range does this V 3x preflop?
What range does this V expect you to 3bet from BB?
Why is KQ not in that 3bet range, if it is ahead of enough of V’s 3x range?

Do you ever 3bet -fold and if not, why not?

Flop

How do your V view check raises? Draw or strength?
What range do your V continue on when you check raise a K high board?
Is this play the best play to maximize value from your V’s range?

Where you aware of the pot odds you were giving your V?
What part if your V’s range were you targeting?

What range dies your V have when they just clik back in that spot?
Why would you just call if you are ahead of that range?
If you think calling down was a better strategy it should be because you think V is loose and aggro and seldom has a K beat.
If so why are you not shoving the flop after you check raise vs that V?

Hope this helps

I am indifferent on defending here since it a 3x raise. Depends on how good villain is at this point. If I think they are at least a decent player I think tend to lean towards folding pre as we will be playing out of position against a bigger stack that can put a lot of pressure on us. If we think villain is just marginal or better yet worse than a marginal player calling is fine.

On the flop for the reasons I mentioned above I like pot controlling here and just calling behind instead of raising. However, if we are going to raise we need to make it large to sut down on implied odds and make their draws actually pay for it. Many players think raising here gives villain bad odds to draw but what they already put in the pot is gone so when you raise small it actually gives them great odds to make the call.

When villain re-raises after our raise I am already not liking this. I would be folding a lot of cards that come on the turn since I would not want to stack off on a one pair hand. With the Ace coming it is an easy fold.

This is a good hand where there are many really good decision points that I feel are very 50/50 on which option we should choose. In spots where I think it is a 50/50 choice I usually lean towards the lower variance option but thats probably also why I have been sucking lately lol. Good hand that just didnt work out in the end.

In general the only reasons for check-raising is, that you want to stack off for value, or you are bluffing. Top pair second kicker is obviously not a bluff, but its also not strong enough to stack off for value, when the SPR is more than 8. So just check-call flop and then make a decision on the turn. Against a lot of opponents there is nothing wrong with check-folding the turn and lose a small pot, since a lot of his bluffing range is going to be A high. So as you say, this was not the turn card, you were hoping to see.