KK oop - by far my least fav situation (general discussion)
 

Here's the HH in question, but I'm less concerned with this hand in particular than the situation where you re-pop it with KK from one of the blinds, get one caller, and an ace flops. As many hands as I've played, I still don't have any comfortable way to play this hand, and thought a general discussion might help. This particular iteration:

10/20NL

Villain (no read) has $2,500, Hero covers.

Hero is SB w/ K [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]K [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]

EP limps, Villain raises to $80 from CO, hero re-raises to $320 from SB, EP folds, Villain thinks for a while and calls.

Flop ($670) A [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img](ldo) 9 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]3 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

Hero?

Alright, in this particular hand, flop was checked through, turn was 2 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], hero checked, villain bet $400, hero called, river was 3 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], hero checked, villain moved all in for his last $1,780 into $1,470 pot, and hero folded. Weak sauce.

But like I said, I'm not so concerned with this particular HH, but more general discussion of this situation, but feel free to use the HH above as a template HH for discussion.

What's people's standard line, without read on villain? Standard continuation bet of 1/2 to 3/4 pot seems like the cheapest way to find out where you're at, but there doesn't seem like there's much value there. Villain is typically folding any non-ace hand, unless he's really tricky and planning on taking it away on the turn, in which case you're in trouble anyway. Most likely villain holdings in these situations are i) smaller pair, ii) AK (most non-fish won't be calling your RR from the SB with any worse ace), iii) possibly some lower suited connectors.

Checking is troublesome for a different reason >> you're basically letting villain take complete control of the hand and if/when he bets, you've got no additional info on where you're at, and you're likely to be facing another large bet on the turn. Thoughts?

Re: KK oop - by far my least fav situation (general discussion)
 

check calling once, or betting and then shutting down are both plays I use

Re: KK oop - by far my least fav situation (general discussion)
 

bump

Re: KK oop - by far my least fav situation (general discussion)
 

I like your play, so long as you balance it with AK.

Re: KK oop - by far my least fav situation (general discussion)
 

I think your post-flop is totally standard there.

I used to put in a standard C-bet here but as you explained, it might not be profitable at all. I remember in Stoxtrader's vids he used to standard C-bet like 1/2 pot on dry Ace flops because of the same way ahead/way behind scenario here. Betting even less, like 1/4-1/3 pot, probably is no good, because a lot of pocket pairs won't fold (and may bluff us later) and we will get probably read for weakness / floated a ton.

I prefer check-calling generally one, or two weakish bets against standard opponents. More aggro players probably will force us into a lot mistakes here, unfortunately