Yesterday I had the worst session I have EVER EVER had. Some of it was due in part to bad beats but other just to my own terrible play. I was sitting at a two tables that each had a player with nearly identical stats. 55/15/4 over 200+ hands. This hand and the following ones I will post the Villain will have stats similar to those (these maniacs had huge stacks and kept flopping aboslute monsters not due to their good play).

Spare no mercy and tear this apart... I need a serious thrashing after last night.


PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $2 BB (9 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

Button ($45.85)
SB ($195.35)
Hero ($199.85)
UTG ($113.30)
UTG+1 ($58)
MP1 ($110.75)
MP2 ($500.95)
MP3 ($108)
CO ($228.30)

Preflop: Hero is BB with K, K.
1 fold, UTG+1 raises to $6, 1 fold, MP2 calls $6, 3 folds, SB calls $5, Hero raises to $25, UTG+1 folds, MP2 calls $19, SB calls $19.

Flop: ($81) J, 4, A (3 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $30, MP2 calls $30, SB folds.

Turn: ($141) 7 (2 players)
Hero checks, MP2 checks.

River: ($141) 9 (2 players)
Hero checks, MP2 bets $30, Hero calls $30.

Final Pot: $201

If you're going to lead out then do so for more, about $60. Personally I go for a C/R trying to force him to fold a weaker ace (he could call the pf raise with A-Q or a suited ace).

turn + river are ok - no draws to protect against, really, except a backdoor heart draw, so he's probably calling you down with an A (I think he'd bet turn with J-J). Get to a showdown as cheaply as possible.

I think you need to bet a lot more on the flop, unless a less-than-half-pot bet is your usual c-bet (at which point, you should really consider upping your standard c-bet). I'd be looking at $55 or $60. Given villain's tendency to call pre-flop coupled with his aggressive nature, a check/raise might work well. It would also give you a chance to see how SB reacts to a bet from him.

Yeah, you have to bet more on the flop and then just totally shut down when you're called.

zing

for some reason..i have to believe there is a better approach to this.

early position raiser calls a fairly big reraise and with that flop, it's hard to be ahead of anything other than QQ, maybe TT. if you bet more on the flop you probably only keep better hands in here, but being OOP and with such a tiny hand range you are ahead of, what would be worse is betting smaller and having the weaker hands take this away from you. even if they don't blow you off the hand, there's too much that's ahead of you here with that flop to bother with a blocking bet strategy, especially since the pot is so large that blocking to the river gets very expensive relative to your stack size. plus, even QQ is going to have a hard time calling 3 blocking-sized bets if it chooses not to pounce on weakness, so if you make it to the river like that, you're almost certain to be beat. this is one of those hands that you don't mind ending right on the flop even if you do fold all hands that are way behind to you.

Your preflop raise is pretty firm, but against a 55/15/4, and multiple callers, I might be inclined to raise even more to take advantage of his obvious error of playing too many hands preflop.

Of course, this flop sucks for you with two others in. I'm not sure what the right plan is when the uncoordinated ace falls.