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Playing KK VS an aggressive opponent
Once again, $1-$2 live getting myself in a pickle! Villain description here i think is also very important. He and another guy had moved from a broken table. $300 max buy-in, but you can bring your full stack from a broken table. Villain has about $2K (or even a little more) in front of him, and the other guy has about $600. I say to the other guy next to me “That must have been some table.” and his response is the “Yeah, he’s just hitting everything!”
About 45-60 minutes later. The big stack has been playing VERY aggressively and making very large bets. Sometimes with the goods, sometimes making it look like he has the goods. At least twice he has made very large bluffs and shown them. However, he doesn’t appear to be a maniac, just a very aggressive player knowing the right time to use it.
To the hand. Villain opens from UTG+2 to $10 ($8-$10 has been standard for the table)(8 handed). By now his stack is at least $2500. He gets one caller. Folded to me on the BB with two red kings. I raise to $40, Villain calls, caller folds. I think I can still put him on a reasonably large range, but i think he has folded most of his true junk at this point. I also feel he has likely capped his range taking out AA, KK, QQ and probably even JJ. I think the stacks are just about right for him to set mine (I have $440 to start the hand), but maybe he folds the smallest pairs to my raise. About $85 in the pot after rake.
Flop is 2s, 4c, 7s. I don’t think the flop hit either of us well. I think I have an equity advantage with over pairs, but he has a nut advantage with sets (77, and a discounted 22 or 44?). However, I know I didn’t think that clearly in real time. I just thought “I don’t think he hit this board”. I believe that on this board I am supposed to bet infrequently, but when I do it should be for a large size. Being just about at the top of my range I decide to bet $100. He thinks for a short time and coolly slides in a full stack of green ($25) for a raise to $500. This is one of the largest bets I’ve ever seen made at $1-$2 at this poker room. I tank. No made flushes, no straights. Virtually no two pair in his range. That leaves sets and draws. My feeling is that his is not likely to raise so large with a set. Hence I strongly weight him toward a flush draw (not many straight draws, mostly “wheels”).
I’ve been concentrating hard on not playing with “scared money”. I call and turn over my kings. He turns over As6s for the nut-flush draw and two back door straight draws. Turn is a brick and the river is the 3s.
I lost a full 1.5 buy-ins on one hand, but I came away feeling I did the right thing, and didn’t (and don’t) think it was a bad call. Am I right?
I bought back in for $200 and ran that back up to $525 for an overall win of $25 for the night. Oh, and by the way, I won a High Hand jackpot for $1000! So overall a good night despite the hand. But based on past discussions here, I THINK the call was an improvement in my overall game?
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