Pocket Kings early/mid stages multi-table tournament - how would you play this hand? (1 Viewer)

[ChipMonster]

The funny thing which nobody has mentioned is that the villain also put the hero on a flush draw, most likely. Neither player wanted to see that river heart.

Yeah, I think you’re absolutely right. I read it as he wanted his ace to hold and he likely put me on Kx of hearts…

 

[horseshoez]

By their very nature, they don't. You need to approach calling stations by value betting on the larger side at every opportunity. That's how you maximize your advantage, not by setting traps. Calling stations will trap themselves, all you have to do is provide them the opportunity to pay off large sizing of your choosing.

This right here. I stopped playing fancy against players like this a long time ago. They trap themselves and often are relentless without considering board texture, their opponents' tendencies, or other crucial factors. They end up donating chips to you hand over fist lol

I understand your concern about not winning more in this type of field, but believe it or not, it's more challenging than most people think when you're up against a field full of calling stations. It's like trying to avoid potholes while going 70 mph haha.

 

[Legend5555]

Here's the thing...

There is nothing wrong with trying to "milk" players. But we are talking about a tourney with presumably unstudied players that will overcommit with all kinds of stuff. This isn't some high roller with big pay jumps where people are folding AT and 77 to a single open raise. But the LAST thing you want to do is raise so small pre that you are inviting multiple callers pre. Just winning 4bbs right now, which represents like 20% of the avg stack is a huge win! KK is more susceptible than people think it is.

And again post flop, the pot is so big that you are never going to fold once you flop a set. At that point of you want to try and find creative ways to keep the villain in, the sure. Just don't ever think you are ever going to be folding at any point.

 

[JustinInMN]

Just winning 4bbs right now, which represents like 20% of the avg stack is a huge win! KK is more susceptible than people think it is.

It's true people underestimate the difference between KK and AA, and more susceptible is quite accurate.

Strategy books do tend to list them in the same category and in fairness to that, you would apply the same preflop strategy to both hands. I think that lends to the illusion they are similar.

But in terms of expectation the gap between KK and AA is so much wider than KK to QQ, for example. (And to take it further, the gap between QQ and JJ is smaller than that of KK to QQ. The gaps in pocket pairs and expectations get smaller as ranks decrease.)

 

[ChipMonster]

It's true people underestimate the difference between KK and AA, and more susceptible is quite accurate.

Strategy books do tend to list them in the same category and in fairness to that, you would apply the same preflop strategy to both hands. I think that lends to the illusion they are similar.

But in terms of expectation the gap between KK and AA is so much wider than KK to QQ, for example. (And to take it further, the gap between QQ and JJ is smaller than that of KK to QQ. The gaps in pocket pairs and expectations get smaller as ranks decrease.)

I swear that every time recently I get pocket kings an ace hits the board, partly what drove my decision not to overload on pre-flop bet. Sure enough an ace hit the board but I was beyond thrilled to see it joined by a King. Should’ve just went more aggressive on the flop…

 

[JustinInMN]

I swear that every time recently I get pocket kings an ace hits the board,

About 30% of the time, this is true 100% of the time.

 

[horseshoez]

I swear that every time recently I get pocket kings an ace hits the board, partly what drove my decision not to overload on pre-flop bet.

This perfectly illustrates how we handle certain hands, and how sometimes it pushes us to adopt unconventional strategies. I used to struggle with this until I realized that an ace on the board could actually work in my favor by representing my holdings. We often psych ourselves out, hesitating when an unwanted card appears. Instead, we can leverage that card to intimidate our opponent.

Here's something my friend, who I'd consider a semi-pro with $186,000 in live earnings, shared with me. It was so good that I read it multiple times. It really drives home the point about fear. Fear is a bitch in this game; it can make us act irrationally or, worse, paralyze us from making the right moves. Enjoy the read...

Adding poker lives

Yes we don’t have to overthink the coolers. You’ll be in the other end equal number of times in the long run and in short run playing only x tourneys per year, it helps to not have things ever even out and just accept the gifts.

Here’s a simple truth about live poker. Most (>80%) have a strategy of playing only good cards and playing pretty straightforward. They are there to “get their moneys worth” and because they have had some success in the past with getting paid off, they don’t feel a need to change. When you think about it, this strategy relies heavily on coolering people so their actual gameplan is to flop sets and have big hands collide on the right side, pure coolers. When you think of a poker strategy as relying on coolers, you will occasionally run very deep too so it reinforces that it is “right” to do this.

So why does it mostly fail? Because there aren’t enough coolers and when there are, you will be on the wrong end of them sometimes too.

What is an actual strategy better than 80% of North American live MTT poker players?

You fight and analyze the tough pots. You win the pots nobody wants. You resteal. You come to each hand as the street fight that it is. Pretty soon you become annoying and players begin to whisper about you because you aren’t playing the 80% way. You aren’t conforming to the standard. They want to validate that you are wrong so they take pleasure in you losing pots even though you are more than winning enough to cover those spots.

You see that you are actually building a stack 5BB at a time (which is massive) and all those 5BB pots add up to tournament “extra lives”.

The extra lives are used for both coolers, flips, and semi bluffs gone wrong. Sometimes you’ll win those pots and skyrocket. Others you’ll lose and be knocked down down but because you cleverly built 1-2-3-4-5 extra lives, you get to keep playing whereas a typical 80% strategy player will be broke or on crumbs.

If you take the approach of learning how to build stacks methodically 5BB at a time and how win in the streets in all the pots nobody wants where big hands aren’t colliding, exploiting their strategy, taking advantage of scare cards and their fear of looking dumb, you’ll build a mountain of extra lives. You still won’t win or cash as much as you want to, but you’ll have a far better variance surviving strategy than the field. When they criticize you, you’re doing fantastic. You lose the fear of looking dumb. Let them think what they want. This works and works quite well. Not a single successful player actually plays “wait for coolers poker”.

 

[ChipMonster]

That’s an awesome read, thanks for providing that! Definitely puts a great perspective on it for sure. I play a lot of sit n gos and haven’t really learned to adjust my strategy too much for multi-table but this highlights the need to do so for sure.

 

[UncleSalty]

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Shove it if ya love it.