Common spot in holdem?

Question

HU 1/2 game.

Villain raises to 6. You call on the bb with Kd7d. Villian is a little tight, but also agressive postflop. You are viewed as loose and agressive preflop. Maybe postflop too. Maybe a little too many c/r's on the flop.

Flop comes out :

KhTc6c.

You check, oppenent bets 10 into 12. Whats your move.

Cons of raising

If you raise, you might get 3-bet off the best hand by a combo draw.

If you raise you have a hard decision on the turn due to the size of the pot and the number of scare cards.

Pros of raising

If you raise, you make draws pay.

Cons of calling

If you call, you dont know where you are at.

If you call, you can get bluffed off the best hand if a club, ace, or even a 9 or T comes on the turn.

If you call, you turn your hand into a bluffcatcher when its better than that (but not much)

Pros of calling

You dont inflate the pot with your ok hand.

So... RAISE OR CALL?

Answer 1

You shouldn't check him in the first place.  Why would you let him see free cards and hit an A, flush or straight to beat you?  BET it.  Checking him gives him all the power in the hand.  If you do check and he bets, go over the top HARD.  Do NOT let him see cheap cards unless you have the nuts.  On a board like that, even a set of Ks isn't the nuts since he could hit a straight, flush or possibly a set of As to beat you.

Answer 2

The play I have in my mind when I called pre-flop would be.

1. Bet out if I hit anything

2. Check raise if I hit anything.

This case, since you check to him and he raised 10 into 12 (I have to put him on something like mid pair or top pair with no kicker).  I don't think he would be betting on a draw.  Tus, I would raise him back like to 25-30.  If he calls. I would bet same 25-30 on the turn no matter what the turn card is.

If he calls the turn, which means your top pair has a good chance of holding up (at this point you have put him on a made hand of either top pair or mid pair) and you don't need to go crazy with betting.  I would keep the follow up bet on the river.

If he raises on the turn I would re-analyse the possible hand that he might be able to have.  If the turn card is the blank, no sweat, I would call his raise and check on the river in hopes that he checks or bet again on the river to prevent him from raising or going all-in.  If the turn card is the scary card that you really dont wanted to see (Ace of club, Jack, etc) then I would consider folding since I have not too much invested in this pot.

After all, it's the best guess in your part and you are the one decided to call pre-flop with soso hand so it is hard decision to make but you have to decide on the play.  It is a flip-flop hand but you definately have an edge at this flop, IMO.  However, in HU, your opponent can have anything.  There are no for sure way to play in poker.  Specially in this kind of situation, you must decide how your play will be before calling the pre-flop and stick with it!

Answer 3

I would call. Villian already is representing (or has) either a king or a better hand. If you call, he will think twice about raising on the turn, because you have indicated that you caught a bit of the flop. The turn will let you know how to proceed ...

Answer 4

If you called a tight players raise and hit top pair, bet into them, why check raise?  If they have the King, they may raise you back and if they do the knee jerk raise then raise them again and see what their reaction is.  I don't like calling a raise from a tight player with K7 in the first place...but if I did, I would not check call, I would bet into them to find out where I am and then make my decision from there.  If you check and the tight player checks...where are you at?  No you have to make a bet or call a Big Bet to find out your info.  The best place to gather info is on the flop where it is cheapest.

By the way after second thought calling a raise from a tight player on the BB with K7 suited has a negative expected value so the more you call with it the less money you will make if this is a 10 person ring game, so I wouldn't suggest playing it, especially against a tight player.

Mark F.

pokergob.com

Answer 5

Raise.  You will almost always find out where you are in the hand when you raise, given you're playing an opponent with a decent knowledge of the game.  If you raise on the flop often enough, you'll be able to figure out how your opponent plays a little easier if you just call it down.

Edit: my instinct in a HU game tells me that a tight player who bets 10 into 12 is trying to chase you out.  You say he's a little aggressive post-flop...he knows the way to beat a lot of aggressive pre-flop players is to bet heavy on the flop when his opponents don't connect.  Top pair is a strong hand in heads up action but by his near pot size bet, I'd put him on second or bottom pair.

Answer 6

this is an absolute insta-raise, you can't mess around with calling considering the draws on this board...you rate to have the best hand here most of the time, and while it is true that you can get raised off the best hand here, you can't be worried about that, he can't have that big a hand every time especially heads-up...and also, while it is true that if we raise and get called and a scare card comes off it is a difficult decision, isn't the same true of calling? you will be put in the exact same spot, except you will know even less about where you stand and you may end up calling it all the way down to find out you are wrong...however, by raising, you clear up where you stand in the hand and the read becomes much easier on the turn, not to mention that you are just going to take this pot down most times anyway, while by just calling you are giving a free card

edit: with the Ax and the 10, i would just fire out on either card, it's still possible that you have the best hand or that you can fold out a better king and if you are beat you will hear about it, and while you won't get called by a worse hand checking gets you nowhere and will leave you a really tough decision if you are bet into...with the club, it's a lot trickier, but i think i would probably check in this spot, because being called should tell you that you are either beat now or against a draw of some sort, and therefore the only hand you would be ahead of is a missed straight draw...and if you are bet into here, it's a pretty easy fold, if he's good enough to make a play on you with just a 10 then that's great for him