Stack sizes:
MP2 $21,25
MP3 $18,16
BU $5,35
SB $23,75
BB $39
UTG $25,75
UTG+1 $23,90
UTG+2 $8,45
MP1 $32,20
0,10/0,25 No-Limit Hold'em (10 handed)
Hand recorder used for this poker hand: Texas Grab'em by www.pokerstrategy.org.uk.
Preflop: Hero is CO with A♠, K♣
UTG calls, UTG+1 folds, UTG+2 calls, MP1 calls, 2 folds, Hero raises to $2,00, 3 folds, UTG calls, 2 folds.
Flop: ($4,85) K♠, A♣, 4♠ (2 players)
UTG bets $0,75, Hero raises to $3,00, UTG calls.
Turn: ($10,85) 6♠ (2 players)
UTG bets $0,25, Hero calls.
River: ($11,35) K♥ (2 players)
UTG bets $7,25, Hero calls.
Final Pot: $25,85
Results follow (highlight to see):
UTG shows [ Jh, Qh ] a pair of Kings
Hero shows [ As, Kc ] a full house, Kings full of Aces
Hero wins $24.60 with a full house, Kings full of Aces.
This hand pretty much shows some of my biggest difficulties when playing: How to put the villain on a hand or a range of hands.
All the way through the hand I was pretty sure I had him beat, probably by far, but I had a very hard time putting him on a hand. What hand can you put him on when he plays it like that. he bets out on the flop and then calls my re-raise. A weak ace? trip fours? Ace-four? A spade draw? A weak ace seemed pretty plausible, but given I raised him pre-flop, then why on earth would he bet out like that on the river? If I had a king I would have him beat. If I had a stronger ace than him I would have him beat. I really can't figure out what he was thinking.
He min-bets the turn, maybe looking for the chance to re-raise me if he hit the flush when the third spade came. Should I have re-raised him? If he re-raised me all in or something like that it would be kinda hard to call it, since i only had four outs to the FH.
I just call his bet on the river, even though i know only AA can beat me, but since he didn't show any sign of holding AA I didn't raise him, even though I probably should have.
So how do you put a guy like that on a particular hand, or even a particular range of hands? I can't imagine any hand he could have called a raise on the river with. In this particular situation it didn't really matter to me what hand he had since I had him beat anyway, except if he held AA which was pretty much out of the question, but I have been in a ton of situations where it was very difficult to put the villain on a hand judging from the way he played it. In this situation he didn't have any of the hands i thought he could have. Go figure...
The other problem I have is how I extract the most value from a hand where I know for sure I have the villain beat. In this situation I'm pretty sure I played it too passively, allowing him to draw way too cheap, but his betting threw me completely off. I didn't want him to lay his hand down but on the other hand it was ridiculous to give him the opportunity to suck out.
That was basically my thoughts on the hand.
So, what to do? How do I play a hand like this?
