Losing Pocket Kings
Doesn’t happen and shouldn’t happen too often but when it does, losing a monster such as pocket Kings is always devastating. Why? Well The only hole cards better than yours is pocket Aces. In a single-table or multi-table tournament you will usually win big when all you’re chips are in the middle. The odds of you losing are pretty low because your opponent will usually be an underdog. Take a look at the possible situations:
- He has pocket Aces which in this case you are about a 4-to-1 underdog.
- He has Ace-King which would make him a 7-to-3 underdog or roughly 2.5-to-1. If he has Ace high with any kicker your odds will go up with pocket Kings.
- He has a lower pocket pair, Queens and lower which would make him roughly a 4-to-1 underdog.
- He has any cards which would still make him roughly a 4-to-1 underdog.
As you can see, out of 4 possible situations your opponent doesn’t stand much of chance since he’ll be a big underdog 3 out of 4 times. Unless he has the Rockets, his best chance is to hit one of the three remaining Aces in the deck assuming he has an Ace in the hole. Without that, hitting two pairs, a set or making a made hand is practically impossible with only 5 cards to come. Well that’s what happen in the following hand, take a look at the hand first and I’ll go over it after.
- Level III (25/50) -
9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: d-jarl (1455 in chips)
Seat 2: BankerREL (1490 in chips)
Seat 3: jlmadsen80 (1750 in chips)
Seat 4: ChrisSolopow (1425 in chips)
Seat 5: willies777 (1640 in chips)
Seat 6: buonanotte (1335 in chips)
Seat 7: ME (1330 in chips)
Seat 8: BinAllN (1620 in chips)
Seat 9: Premier (1455 in chips)
ME: posts small blind 25
BinAllN: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to ME [Kc Kh]
Premier: folds
d-jarl: folds
BankerREL: raises 50 to 100
jlmadsen80: folds
ChrisSolopow: calls 100
willies777: folds
buonanotte: raises 250 to 350
ME: raises 980 to 1330 and is all-in
BinAllN: folds
BankerREL: folds
ChrisSolopow: folds
buonanotte: calls 980
ChrisSolopow said, “99″
*** FLOP *** [Tc As Ks]
*** TURN *** [Tc As Ks] [6c]
*** RIVER *** [Tc As Ks 6c] [Qh]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
ME: shows [Kc Kh] (three of a kind, Kings)
buonanotte: shows [Jd Jh] (a straight, Ten to Ace)
buonanotte collected 2910 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2910 | Rake 0
Board [Tc As Ks 6c Qh]
Seat 1: d-jarl folded before Flop (didnt bet)
Seat 2: BankerREL folded before Flop
Seat 3: jlmadsen80 folded before Flop (didnt bet)
Seat 4: ChrisSolopow folded before Flop
Seat 5: willies777 folded before Flop (didnt bet)
Seat 6: buonanotte (button) showed [Jd Jh] and won (2910) with a straight, Ten to Ace
Seat 7: ME (small blind) showed [Kc Kh] and lost with three of a kind, Kings
Seat 8: BinAllN (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 9: Premier folded before Flop (didnt bet)
As you can see, everything happened in the preflop stage. After a minimum raise from an early position player, there was one limp and on re-raise from the button. That’s when I pushed all my chips in the small blind. Did the button make the right call? No, preflop stage is very important, especially in a tournament format but clearly this player had no idea and I’ll go over why. First of all he re-raised because he wanted to fold other players and determine how good his hand was compare to the others which is fine but after I re-raised he should’ve known he was beat by either higher cards or a better pocket pair. What saved him? This player is an idiot who couldn’t get a proper read and figure out I was a tight-aggressive player.
Basically if he knew how to play he would’ve figured out I played a minimum of high cards which was giving him at best a coinflip situation. I knew I was getting more than a coinflip and I could’ve smooth call the 350 raise but with the initial raiser and limper behind me I couldn’t risk one of them calling having too little information on them, so playing it tight was my best shot. So I re-raised for all my chips. Why not just make a standard re-raise? I only had 1330 in chips and making a 2X or 3X raise would leave me with less chips then my initial re-raise so instead of smooth calling a monster and giving a flop I made forced him to take a bad gamble in which he would be about 4-to-1 underdog or 2.5-to-1 if he has an Ace.
With the blind being so low the move for him was to fold because he didn’t have to commit all his chips for a hand like Jacks when you can be beat by so many overcards and 3 pockets. He took the gamble and won with a made hand. Basically his re-raise was completely lucky because if he knew what he was doing he would’ve known that after my raise his Jacks didn’t stand much of chance and would’ve laid it down hence the reason of the raise. Obviously he made a bad move but that’s ok, sooner or later this kind of bad play is going to cost him.
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