Ran K-K's into a flush - Could I have avoided it?

GaryLaud

Hi All, I have another example of where I have lost a major pot after running my King's into a flush - however, despite three clubs on the board, I failed to spot that there was one...YES a large bet was made on the river, but felt my hand was good, until the cards were turned over...Would you guys have had trouble folding your hand in this situation, or was I once AGAIN being a muppett?

Hand History #771864469 (23:25 27/04/2014)

Player	Action	Cards	Amount	Pot	Balance
GaryLaud	Small blind		£0.02	£0.02	£3.21
C	Big blind		£0.04	£0.06	£0.50
z	Big blind		£0.04	£0.10	£3.16
	Your hole cards	K K
z	Raise		£0.08	£0.18	£3.08
Dealer	Fold
GaryLaud	Call		£0.10	£0.28	£3.11
C	Fold
Flop
		2 5 Q
GaryLaud	Check
z	Bet		£0.16	£0.44	£2.92
GaryLaud	Call		£0.16	£0.60	£2.95
Turn
		5
GaryLaud	Bet		£0.24	£0.84	£2.71
z	Call		£0.24	£1.08	£2.68
River
		J
GaryLaud	Bet		£0.12	£1.20	£2.59
z	Raise		£0.92	£2.12	£1.76
GaryLaud	Call		£0.80	£2.92	£1.79
Z	Show	4 A
GaryLaud	Muck	K K
z	Win	Flush to the Ace	£2.70		£4.46

alex1229

Gary, forget about the flush you gotta look at a couple other things first.

Opponent raises to 8p, you have the 2nd best starting hand at poker, you want to build the pot up. you need to re raise him.

How come you didnt?

Also with the 2 clubs on the flop it would be a good time to raise and get him to make a decision, u let him reach that flush far to easilly

gazza127

You really make it hard for yourself in this hand.

Its a simple game really.  With big hands like this we reraise pre.  No need to be coy.  We can raise to 24p-30p pre.  Then its a simple game of bet biggish on flop, bet biggish on turn... and then vom on the keyboard if we think he was calling for a flush draw.... but given that we hold the Kc blocker there would be nothing to stop me just value betting three streets here.

I don't like the call pre.  It really puts us on the back foot.  The lead on the turn is perculiar... and the 12p bet on the river is genuinely pointless.  We may as well check.  When we bet so little we open the door to bluff raises so often so we always have to call with such a strong hand such as KK when we get raised.  As played if we bet 60p and then get shoved on we can fold as our bet is given more credit.  Plus if we bet 60p and he pops up with Qx and calls we've gotten more value.

imallin24

made a few mistakes here u should 3 bet pre to about 30p preflop u want to build the pot up u have played the hand so passive

CraigSG1

I get the feeling from your blog and this hand that you don't want to lose money and are playing far too passively and scared. 

Until you have a bigger BR or don't mind losing a big % of your BR then don't play cash. This hand is a prime example. No matter how you play this hand you will probably have lost it as not many players at 4nl will fold a suited ace especially when they flop a draw. That's poker. He hit it this time but we make our money from the three other times he doesn't hit his flush or ace. 

Your mistake is you let him dictate the hand when we have a monster hand. As everyone has said RERAISE pre. Why? You have 2nd best hand and we want to get value from all the other worse hands. For example, this hand villain min bets and then we raise to 30p and get called. There is now 72p in pot instead of 28p. Flop is 37J rainbow. We bet, he folds. We have got value and won a bigger pot. Now same pre but flop is same. We bet and he calls. Same turn. We bet big, he may now decide to fold his draw and again we win a bigger pot. If he calls and he misses river again we win more. If he hits we can now either check fold to a big allin or check call a small bet. The point here is you dictated the terms of being in the hand, had more chances to win bigger pots, got our money in while we was ahead and charged him to hit his draw. We play this 1000 times and we will win a lot of money!

The point is you ARE going to lose and you may lose 3 or 4 times in a row but we are also going to win long term so we need a bigger BR to absorb the bad variance. 

Good luck!

LARSON7

Hey Gary,

A few thing from all your posts

If you have AA KK or QQ like others have said, always try and re-raise these hands pre flop.

So someone makes it 8p you have kings, raise it anywhere from 24-36. If they re raise you do your best to try and get it in pre flop, so raise again.

On the flop you bet over 50% pot, on the turn you bet under 50% pot.

The bet sizing is better than some of the hands you have shown previously, were you were min betting, into 40p pots etc.

Try and keep your bet sizing at aroung 55-75% pot on ever street if you are going to bet.

On the river you bet 12 into 1.08, Try and void this, would be far better to check instead of making these kind of bets.

You are just learning and enjoying the game which is brilliant.

Best thing to do is focus on little small things and build it up from there.

So - big hands, especially aces and kings, raise and re-raise. If at all possible we want to get it in pre flop or to build the pot.

- bet sizing, instead of making 4p 8p bets into 40/50p pots try and make your bet sizing 55%-75% of pot. Do not bet small (8p into 60p) if you are unsure just check.

If you have a really strong hand at 4nl, you can even make a pot sized bet, so you have a flush/ straight etc, you can make pot sized bets as players at this level won't really worry about what you are doing, just the 2 cards they hold. But generally make it 55%-75% (if betting).