[Guruman]

thrakkar, thanks for the deatiled response. My thoughts:

1)a king doesn't stopngo almost ever. It either check/calls or check/raises most of the time, because what just happened is likely to happen then as well - the worse hands will just curl up and fold and the K will not win anymore bets.

2)because of the effect of number one, I'm much more likely to see a showdown with anything legit. I'm not going to fold a jack. I promise.

3)even though your hand is almost never a king, its also almost never complete air. This is because so much of that board is right in the middle of my range, and because there are so few draws out there. Your bet looks like one that wants to get called (honestly it looks a lot like either a jack, a good 8, or a total monster that wants to threebet)

4)because your hand looks like it does, I'm probably folding most of my low pocket pairs, my weak 8s, and my Ax air. You correctly surmised that you can fold to a raise from me, but you should also keep in mind exactly how much of a dog you are when I call.

5)since you're a huge dog when I call, your turn bet is essentially a pure bluff. You have five outs if you dont get raised, but the pot is not nearly the size you need it to be to justify that. IOW I'll have to both have and fold a better hand a very high percentage of the time in order to justify the bluff based on the pot size. I'll reiterate that I'm not folding a jack to the turn donk because the turn donk doesnt look like a K. It looks like a J.

6)again, because of the nature of your bet, the action, my range, and the board - I'm not going to be able to call with any weak pocket pairs, drawless hands, or any otherwise whiffed stealing hands. Your hand looks too much like a made (non K) pair, so I've got to pitch that part of my range. Once again: because I cannot call with many worse hands, your turn bet is not for value and therefore only has value as a bluff.

7)If instead of betting you were to check, I would bet my entire range, much of which you are still beating. You could at that point choose to just call me down, or to call here and check/fold the river - since I'd have to check behind most of my weaker showdown hands like pps and Ax.

the sum of all of this is that I will be allowed to make a greater and wider range of mistakes if you check this hand than if you bet it, and you are often making a larger and wider ranges of mistakes when you bet the turn.

I'll reiterate that I'm not folding a jack because your turn bet doesnt look like a king.