$5.50 NLHE MTT: Did I make a terrible river call? $5.50 KO Micromillions

[xrhstos]

This hand was played a month or so ago.
I just recall that villain was playing TAG-ish.


pokerstars, $4.90 + $0.60 - Hold'em No Limit - 7,000/14,000 (1,750 ante) - 9 players
Replay this hand on CardsChat

UTG: 417,480 (30 bb)
UTG+1: 271,609 (19 bb)
MP: 909,072 (65 bb)
MP+1: 995,465 (71 bb)
LP (Hero): 501,336 (36 bb)
CO: 855,954 (61 bb)
BU: 984,249 (70 bb)
SB: 162,797 (12 bb)
BB: 435,724 (31 bb)

Pre-Flop: (36,750) Hero is LP with K♦ K♠
2 players fold, MP raises to 28,000, 1 fold, Hero 3-bets to 72,500, 4 players fold, MP calls 44,500

Flop: (181,750) J♠ 4♠ J♥ (2 players)
MP checks, Hero checks

Turn: (181,750) 2♥ (2 players)
MP bets 42,000, Hero calls 42,000

River: (265,750) 6♣ (2 players)
MP checks, Hero bets 71,000, MP raises to 476,000, Hero calls 314,086 (all-in)

Total pot: 1,035,922

Showdown:
MP shows A♠ A♣ (two pair, Aces and Jacks)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 82%, Flop: 92%, Turn: 95%, River: 100%)

LP (Hero) shows K♦ K♠ (two pair, Kings and Jacks)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 18%, Flop: 8%, Turn: 5%, River: 0%)

MP wins 1,035,922

 

[fundiver199]

If he had 4-bet preflop, as he always should with AA, would you then have folded KK? If not then this was basically just a cooler, and his slowplay made no difference to the outcome. Rather than looking to get away from KK here, I would play it faster. Somewhat larger 3-bet, bet the flop, jam the turn. Its not that likely, he open from EP and then call a 3-bet out of position with a J in his hand, and I think, we can get value from QQ, 55-TT as much, as he have them, and draws.

 

[Sidetracked]

There are definitely some Jacks in villains range here. Perhaps AJs and maybe even KJs.

In situations like these, I would probably check behind on the river (the power of position) and be very surprised to see my opponents Aces.

 

[xrhstos]

There are definitely some Jacks in villains range here. Perhaps AJs and maybe even KJs.

In situations like these, I would probably check behind on the river (the power of position) and be very surprised to see my opponents Aces.

As a tight player he shouldn't be raise/calling KJs pre, so maybe just AJs on his range.
The way villain played the hand I would rather expect 44,66 instead of AJs.
At the time I justified the call thinking he could have AXss, but we block the K of spades, it's AQss and rarely ATss.
I also don't think his mid pocket pairs are shoving river for thin value.
After looking back at the hand I lean towards checking river or folding after the shove.

 

[Jon Poker]

Its unfortunate our opponent plays aces this way - they should always be 4betting us when we decide to show strength and they are holding the nuts preflop...we are going broke regardless here.
Preflop we are doing exactly what we are supposed to be doing - I just feel like our sizing is too small - I am 3betting at least like 3x in this spot, most of the time 3.3x so minimum I would make it 84k here - but I think the sizing disagreement is minor and the 3bet action itself is very correct.

Seeing as we 3bet preflop, there is no reason for us to check the paired flop - if our opponent has a Jack he will tell us with a raise (generally). These boards are notoriously hard to hit and if we get raised here it should polarize our opponents range to trips, possible boats, and strong flush draws. QQ should never be check raising this flop and the way it's been played our opponent really shouldn't have AA here either (even tho we know the do). So we should be cbetting here alllll the time for between 1/4 and 1/3 pot.

When we get called we can feel comfortable about the turn as well seeing as it really doesnt change much for us and for such a small bet we should be getting floated by AK and AQ here alot - JJ, QQ and even possibly TT is coming along for a flop bet and possibly calling all reasonable turn bets when undercard hits the board. If we get check raised on the turn we can consider folding our KK here depending on the sizing. Since we already ruled out AA in our opponents range via the preflop actions - our opponent should never be raising us with an overpair to the board in this spot since they would only be getting called by 3 Jack's or a better overpair. This holds likewise for us - if we get x/raised on the turn our opponent should only be doing this with 3 Jack's or a full house of sorts. This being considered, if they raise a reasonable amount (3x our bet or so) then we can call and look to get to showdown on the river - if they are check jamming (or raising close to it) then they are clearly looking for us to play for stacks here and that should raise super large alarm bells.

When we get called on the turn and we see a river as blank as the 6 and are checked to a 3rd time we should be putting in the value bet on the river. Only 3 Jack's, a full house or AA has us beat here - so we should be very comfortable looking to extract value from underpairs to our KK here. All of their missed draws are folding anyways and if they were going to bluff at it they should be leading into us on the river in which case we just call and showdown the best hand a lot of the time. Things go haywire when we do value bet and get raised...it sucks but stronger hands should have raised us on earlier streets. If our opponent slow played 3 Jack's, flopped a boat with 44 or called 3 streets with 66 and got there on the end - well that sucks for us but it's such a small part of our opponents range we can just never fold here. The river raise is extremely polarized to trips, a full house, or nothing...for those reasons, I call and get the bad news just like you.

Weird way for our opponent to play the hand - in reality when he x/raises the river he is only getting called by our hand specifically or a better hand. So it's a bad spot for him to raise his Aces, if you are bluffing the river he gets extra value from us when we put in the bet and he doesnt need to raise us only to get called by a better hand. Our KK and maybe QQ would be the only worse hands calling his play here - otherwise tripsnor a full house will be shoving it in his face and he will be whining about how his aces got cracked deep in a tournament.

Hope this helps out, good luck in your game and at the tables!

 

[liuouhgkres]

@Jon Poker, great analysis buddy, I agree with everything you said except river. KK is the bottom of our range and players in this tournaments severely underbluff. High stakes agressive reg might have bluffs in this spot, but not 5$ tournament players. It should be fold here.

 

[popstani]

Definitely agree with you, in the 5$ buy in tournaments people most of the time don’t bluff in spots like this, but folding KK here is to hard. Maybe those JJ on the flop would save me if I am in this situation, but again is really hard to fold kings here.

 

[Ianmacca99]

Really a cooler and agree with fundiver that no matter how opponent played it we getting stacked. I would of like to see I larger raise size to around 80-85k IMO but that's not really too much of a problem

In general I would be cbetting this flop as we can get value from underpairs and Ax that peel

Turn should be the same and barrell here for around 35% pot

The river really sucks and now we've got to decide has he got a J in his hand did he flop a boat. I've found at these stakes a player usually has it with this kind of line on river. what are his bluffs in this spot ? Can be player dependant would he of turned QQs into a bluff etc. Very tough spot and hard to get away from here.