Sunday, December 2, 2007

When to Fold Pocket Kings

I haven't been playing a lot of poker online lately. I've been coaching basketball and reflecting on how much poker takes up my time. Anyway-here is a recent tournament that I entered.

I am playing in a tournament on Ultimate Bet and here is the situation. It is a $22 buy in tournament. There are 170 players and it pays the top 20. It is down to 26 players and I get dealt KK. From what I remember I was currently in 9th place. So I was certain to make the money. There was a raiser ahead of me so I raised it pretty big. Someone behind me reraises it the minimum. I start to think. I know the probability of him having KK was unlikely. A minimum reraise was very suspicious. I've played online long enough to know if someone has any medium to high pocket pair they will go all in on a reraise. Unless they have AA and want action, they will reraise the minimum. I decide to push it all in. The reraiser has me covered and calls. Well, he had AA. It was what I suspected. No luck for me on the flop, turn, or river. I've read books and heard interviews from some professional poker players that you should muck anything and everything except AA when you are down to the cutoff for the money. I find it really hard to lay down KK in any position preflop, even if I know I am beat. I would rather take my chances and try to double up than fold that hand. Maybe that's why I'm not a professional poker player. Haha!

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