They are in a tournament in the bubble phase they are utg and they open they have KK and they open to 3bb and the big blind makes them all in with 70bb and we have 40bb which is the most advisable thing to fold and wait to enter prizes or pay him, mention that many times I paid and the villain has AA

Very hard to fold KK there. KK is the second best starting hand you can get...if he has AA, that's a real cooler, and it will happen. but most of the time you will win that hand...it would have set you up well for the rest of the tournament.

KK is a strong hand. When you or anyone opens KK from UTG we want to be re raised. We have a hand that we are looking to get it all in with. I would throw the bubble out of this and make the call. If you win the hand, as you will be ahead much of the time, you set yourself for a deep run and try to get to the last few spots where most of the money is paid out. Min cashing is important, I am not saying that it is not but you have to take some risk if you want to get the the large payouts. Taking a risk, however big or little risk it may be, with KK seems like a good way to go to have a shot at larger money. No matter what the outcome is, make a note on the player of what they jammed and the circumstances. You might run into the player again in a similar spot and know what they jammed with. They might be a player who knows you could fold very strong hands here because of the bubble dynamic.

To be successfull in poker you need to stop worrying about avoiding cooler spots and falce achievements like making it into the payout. Instead you need to focus on long term EV and getting those decisions right, that are actually close. Like what would you do here, if you had AK or TT? This is way more interesting than having KK, because KK is just a snap call, and there is no need to even think about it.

Also how many times have you actually picked up KK and run into AA exactly on the bubble? It only happens every 5.000-8.000 hands on average depending on the number of players at the table. Sometimes I cant help but feel, that people post anecdotal stories like this just to make other people waste their time replying to them

Call quickly - as someone that likes bluffing on the bubble more than most, these people are mostly betting that their opponents won't pick up a hand good enough to call.

I know there are some people who would only shove AA here, but they are in the minority and not playing well.

If you run KK into AA (assuming you don't win) you are unlikely to have a good tournament result. But if you start folding KK pre-flop, you are costing yourself the opportunity to have as many good tournament results as you could.

Make the right plays over and over and learn to live with the results.

Good luck!

If the tournament payout is flat (like an entry) then fold. If the tournament is outside your bankroll and cashing means making rent, then go ahead and fold.

Understand that against any Ax, you are about a 65% favorite. That does not mean you will win. That means you win two out of three. So is it worth having 80BB two times and being knocked out of the tournament once worth it? Most people would say yes.

Then there is the chance Villain has QJs or a smaller pair like QQ. Here you are an 80% favorite, again not a sure thing. You only double up four out of five times.

The Bubble is the time for big stacks to shove over every raise. Each time they get you to fold, they win blinds, antes, and your 3X raise. That's 5.5BB!

if you are thinking about folding KKs preflop on a money bubble in anything but a satellite tournament -- then poker may not be the game for you...

KKs are the second nuts preflop and are only beaten by one hand in the deck -- with soooo many players overvaluing AK and AQ this is an easy get in. When we run into AA it is what it is and there's nothing we can do - life goes on. There's simply nothing to learn from coolers, they are going to happen - you need to realize this, shake it off and keep going. Had villan shown up with AK and you won the hand - you probably wouldn't even be asking these questions.

Conclusion is dont let the end results cloud your judgement - stick with what is the profitable play and last but not least, dont fold KKs!

Originally Posted by Jon Poker

There's simply nothing to learn from coolers, they are going to happen - you need to realize this, shake it off and keep going. Had villan shown up with AK and you won the hand - you probably wouldn't even be asking these questions.

Absolutely. And also people get so worked up, whenever they lose with AA or KK. But no hand is 100% sure to win preflop, and getting unlucky with these two specific hands is just such a small part of the total amount of luck, we recieve. Sure it sucks to run KK into AA and lose. No poker player love that feeling. But in reality its no more unlucky than trying to steal the blinds by jamming A4s with a 12BB stack from BTN and getting snapcalled by someone with AA. In fact that is almost more unlucky, since A4s block AA, which KK does not.

But you never see these A4s vs. AA hands end up in the forum with people asking, if they did anything wrong. So its all about feeling entitlement with big starting hands, which is something, people need to get rid of, if they want to have success in poker. Everyone gets dealth KK or AA at the same frequenzy, at least in the long run. So winning with these hands is not a strategy for being a long term winner. Its all those other hands like the A4s, where you need to create your results.

Originally Posted by CERRATO505

They are in a tournament in the bubble phase they are utg and they open they have KK and they open to 3bb and the big blind makes them all in with 70bb and we have 40bb which is the most advisable thing to fold and wait to enter prizes or pay him, mention that many times I paid and the villain has AA

Thank U 4 Posting

If your villains are mostly doing this with AA as you suggest than we can fold. We have to have a very good read to believe that it is only happening with AA and not KK QQ JJ -99 AK AQ suited as well.

So you want to be watching while you play and when similar hands occur make a note of the hands that your villains have when they use this betting pattern at this stage of the tournament.


Hope this helps