Could I have found a fold.

[blkmoney12]

I finished playing a $300 GTD, $5 buy-in on PokerStarsPA - First was $88, second was $60. I managed to make it to Headsup and have the final hand that you can see below. I also have uploaded a video of the whole final table.

I was in the SB with 58969 chips the villain was in the BB with 98531 chips. I have K8 Spades, with the blinds at 800/1600, 200 ante. BB checks and we see a flop. Now you can see the results of the final hand and how it played out to end the game. I did decide to play the hand, but should I have folded and waited for something better?

https://www.cardschat.com/replayer/524Hg2W1N

 

[Mahdi]

sure, it was no point to give so much for 13k in the pot, he could be bluffing ofc, but next time if he does you might have 3 there

 

[Shells]

I would have played the hand. K8s is not awful headsup, in my opinion. The only thing I may have done differently would be to raise at least 3x or 4x BB. If they want to play their 63o then, game on.

 

[jerargent]

First, I think K8s in position, you should have mini-raised preflop.
After his lead on the flop, and the check on the turn, and all-in on the river, I would put him on a 3 or KQ. I think a draw like 4-5, A4 or something like that would have bet you on the turn as well.
It is also very important to see what kind of player the villain was and how many bluffs he did, and you know that.

 

[dallam]

K8s is a pretty good hand in HU, definitely a 2x, 2.5 or 3x reraise preflop.
Flop brought you the King and two low, he opened 1bb and just a call. You can easily made a reraise to 4800 and most Aceish hands will gonna call you, and every low pairs.
Turn you made a reraise and that was the worst point when you can start to show power. As a Queen of clubs hit, so many outs for your opp. And instead of making an attack on preflop or flop you have to defend here. So your whole role changed, and as soon as you made a little reraise and the pot was okay, he could call you with the trashy 63o.
I would also add if you made raise on preflop to 2-3x and flop to another 3-4x bb, and here he would check you could make a 3rd reraise and that was the point where he easily could fold 63o.
River so he went all-in, and so far you were tight with this hand and decided to call with 32BB. That was a trap, but he was great that realizing you probably have the king.

This hand was played wrong. K8s is a great hand, and you even have him on flop, and you made no action. A self-defence on turn, and the magic card on river. So...play hands like this in heads up for sure! And if you have the highest pair, don't be afraid to reraise.

You probably played cool if you achieved the second place, so no need to feel disappointed. Keep going.

 

[300HPGOD]

To me depends on villain and what you have been doing in past hands on whether you should be raising or not. I am not a HU expert or even good at it in my opinion but I feel it is all about patterns. If you have not been raising too many hands pre flop then you can start to raise your mediocre and mediocre to good hands pre. If you have been raising pre flop and getting called always then I think you can play this one either way. I would base my decision of raising here on how many times villain has folded to my raises. If they arent folding and arent re raising me then I would have no problem seeing the flop while being in position.

As for post flop play, I think you can call or raise here and make arguments for both. Calling keeps in any bluffs the BB might have and keeps their 3x and 2x hands in (which while watching the replayer is what I out them on before seeing the results). Raising gets potential value from villains who will not fold any pair post flop in heads up. We can lean heavily on them having a pair (unless they have been bluffing a lot which I have no way of knowing) so it might make a spot where we can go for a big pot here if we feel they are not a folder.

The turn as played is standard although I really dont like using that word often but here they check to you and you have to bet. Sizing is the only decision and I would bet between 50-60% of pot here to try to keep his one pair hands in. Although a chance that any bluffs he had could have caught a queen which would be great for us so maybe betting larger is better so we can get more value from stuff that does want to hand around.

The river is sick but I actually think this is a pretty easy fold, especially if you havent seen villain make any big bluffs yet. Their range is heavy with 3x and 2x hands and they know more than likely you have something based on your turn bet. They make a good bet knowing you could call off here but you need to find the fold here. If you get bluffed in this spot than you do but the chances they have it far exceed the bluffs in my opinion.

 

[mercyscercy]

heads up

when it is just 2 of you everything goes out the window with strategy. every hand and situation is playable. I would have played it for sure

 

[MikeCarasone]

I think you definitely can find a fold her. Betting more aggressively preflop and especially post flop when he bets the flop , you gotta be 3betting top pair here. Heads up flopping top pair is big. Just flatting gives him a cheaper route to seeing the next card. If he has a king he calls otherwise he may not even bother seeing the turn, let alone the river. Betting aggressively with top pair on turn with a dry board likely avoids him seeing the 3 on the river. He’s likely folding to aggressive play on both the flop and turn. If he does call (which would be unwise for his tournament life in this situation) and he shoves the river it’s usually a good indicator that he’s gotten stronger on the river or doesn’t want to miss any value by you checking after 2 streets of aggressive play.

Obv not the worst call in the world but certainly a fold is much better in this situation. Just an unlucky river that he gets to take advantage of. Obv if he didn’t hit (which your lack of aggressive play leads him to believe he can get it through or he did hit gin and he was very lucky. Also, was risking 13k or so with that horrible river. It’s definitely possible he hit it since you didn’t and his holding is very polarized.

 

[mktpppr]

Hi,

Generally, a massive overbet donk jam on the river is the nuts.

By now you should have reads on villain, but you didn't give any, so it's difficult to comment on a Headsup hand, where so much is read-dependent.

Preflop: it's mandatory to play this hand, whether you limp or raise, and raise sizing, depends on your approach to HU and the specific opponent.

Flop: as played, calling or raising vs the lead is fine, but you must have a clear plan for the hand on the flop, because this will dictate how the hand will progress on later streets.

Turn: as played, I prefer a check-back to pot control. Again I refer to your plan for the hand, so your play on flop and turn is inconsistent.

River: as played, I would fold, this is very often nuttish.

 

[Jon Poker]

The action on the river is pretty gross -- villan is either stone bluffing or taking us to value town. The problem is with the runout its hard for us to be good here. We lose to AK, KQ and the bare 3 - and are basically calling to chop with all other Kx hands. Calling for a chop has sooooo many negative icm implications its not even funny. Easy fold, preserve the chips you have left and find a better spot.

I think i would have played differently. First off heads up at these stack depths, K8s is an easy raise in position - so i would go 2.2 - 2.5x here. As played, when villan donks into us on the flop we should raise for value as its hard to make a pair in holdem and then continue the turn betting large as well. We can get value from 3x or 2x hands, and all the straight draw combos villan could have like 45, 56, etc. Even playing it this way, as stated before, if villan calls twice and then puts me in on rivers - I am folding rather than calling for the chop.

 

[fundiver199]

Preflop
This deep I never use a limping strategy heads-up. It might have merits, I am not a heads-up specialist. For for me it just works much better to raise to 2,5BB and pick it up uncontested, or force the opponent to play a larger pot out of position. K8s is a monster heads-up. Its not a hand, I would ever consider not playing.

Flop
On board with just calling his lead and pot control a bit. Your hand dont need that much protection, since an A is the only overcard, that can come.

Turn
When he check, I am totally on board with betting for value. I think, you have the best hand the vast majority of the time. Top pair meh kicker is a monster heads up.

River
Its a massive overbet, and since you limped, his range actually has a high density of low cards, where normally it would be the other way around. So he can absolutely have trips here, and I think, this should have been an easy fold.

Conclusion
You kind of messed this up by limping and then playing the hand, as if you had raised. Either raise preflop or fold to that river jam.

 

[Andrei Korolev]

On the river, it was clear that it increased and it was difficult to give up to you...