Kings Preflop

[Dan The Man 0]

This is another small stakes Sit & Go, still in the first level. I recognized one player that I played with before, I had some notes on him that he's a straightforward player and once made an overly large preflop raise with Kings. After one round around the table I hadn't played a hand and then picked up in the small blind. Blinds are $10/$20. The player under the gun limps and the next guy, the straightforward one, raises to $380. Everyone folds to me. Now, I figure his range of hands are AA, KK (not very likely since I hold the other two), QQ, AK, or JJ. AQ is also possible but unlikely because that's a bit too strong for that hand. I have $1,470 left and have him covered by about $160. The big blind has about the same as me and the limper has less. Just call the raise and see a flop? Reraise all-in to shut out the big blind and limper? I had a sick feeling he had Aces, but couldn't lay down Kings here.

[ChrisRichey 1]

There is no way you're folding pf here. I think your only option is to push, unless you feel like minraising pf.

[ramenandeggs 0]

i'll take the push. I get strong feelings that villian has AA sometimes and when I do, I'm right more than I like to see (not a psychic by the way, this is still a very very small amount of times) because usually I'm confident that my kings are good and when I'm not, I don't go through with the feeling. But I think the reason I don't feel so bad about it is that 1) it could all just be result oriented nonsense and I don't realize it 2) it's a cooler IMO, even mtts don't have as much play as you would hope for and you're just going to have to live with running against AA once in a while 3) but it isn't an mtt, this is a SNG. if you get KK, you push it pf when you can get stacked and sign up for the next one if thiings go wrong.

[gobears 0]

I push - if villain has AA, that's a terrible bet preflop by villain. Based on your estimate of villain's range, you want all your chips in the middle.

[pokerguy33 0]

I think this is a standard push. I doubt he has A's, and like said above if he does have A's thats a horrible PF raise. He is only going to get action from a big hand with his raise, and you have a big hand. I push, and you'll probably see AK here or QQ here most of the time. If you just call the raise, or min raise he is going to call, and if an A hits the flop, your pretty much screwed, I just have a very strong feeling he has AK or even AQ. If you run into AA all you can do is laugh, or thats what I would do.

[NoBBiR 0]

In almost any tournament senario when you have KK you are not getting off of it preflop due to your need to constantly acquire chips. Ask most every pro - folding Kings because you think that your opponent has Aces preflop is never a good idea because he could easily be playing (and probably is playing) AA, KK, QQ, and AK, suited or unsuited, all the same way. If he has Aces, oh well, its just a cooler.

[trussdude 0]

I had similar situation happen on Saturday. $200 buy in, $25 bounty tournament, $3,500 in starting chips. Early in the first level, blinds at $25-$50, it folds around to me in middle position, I make it $200 to go with pocket Kings, it folds to the big blind, who raises to $450. I put him on protecting his blind and pushing against a steal attempt. I re-raise to $1,000, he goes all in.I had $5,150 in chips and he had $3,175If I didn't have him covered, I thought about laying it down. I called, putting him on QQ or AK. What are the odds of him having the only hand that has me crushed?He had pocket aces and I lost a huge pot and the $25 bounty that goes with knocking a player out.I was out of the tournament about 15 minutes later, when my Q-Q fell to A-J offsuit, when the guy made trip jacks.

[ChrisRichey 1]

If I remember correctly, somebody will have AA about 1 in 17 times you have KK.

[trussdude 0]

That means the next 16 times I have pocket Kings, I'll have the villian dominated!

[shpaget 0]

If I remember correctly, somebody will have AA about 1 in 17 times you have KK.

I think a little closer to 1 in 22...but regardless...it's roughly 5% of the time...probably more common than people think.Conversely, 5% of the time you have AA, someone will have KK.And that's why QQ utg gives headaches...10% of the time someone behind you will have AA/KK.

[StupidKid 0]

"This is a small stakes sit n go" - I'm not folding KK preflop. This is a standard shove, this kinda raise for me is more often than not 1010/JJ or AK (just personal experience from weird OTT raises)

[copernicus 0]

If thats his range, its a no brainer push to isolate. You dont want Aces tagging along if he doesnt already have one (or two).Edit after reading: Yes, the raw probablility at a full table of someone having Aces when you have Kings is a bit under 5%, but when someone comes over the top of you that all goes out the window, and you have to put him on a range. If its AK (8 hands), AA (6 hands), KK (1 hand), QQ , (6 hands) then AA has jumped to 29%.

[asytnik 0]

Blinds are $10/$20. The player under the gun limps and the next guy, the straightforward one, raises to $380.

The big blind has about the same as me and the limper has less. Just call the raise and see a flop? Reraise all-in to shut out the big blind and limper? I had a sick feeling he had Aces, but couldn't lay down Kings here.

Calling totally sucks. You'll more than likely be glued to the hand anyway and just have to face even harder decisions i.e. Ace hits flop, you check and he checks. Still not sure whether he's slow playing Aces or has scared Queens/Jacks. If an Ace doesn't hit you bet and might take the pot down which is the exact same pot you would've taken down had you re raised all in and he folded. You aren't deep stacked enough and haven't played enough with this guy to get tricky with Kings. You definitely re-raise all in, but not to shut out the big blind and limper--they're the least of your concerns. You re-raise all-in and hope this guy calls. EVEN if he has Aces. And the reason for that is that there are a ton of implied benefits of finding out what that hand is. He shows you Aces, you hope to suck out and if not, grats you'll never lose a pot to that player again (since his raises always reveal the exact strength of his hand). If you fold, or call-fold, or raise-fold(even worse) then you're not going to know what to do next time he donk-raises. Also, like others have said, you beat his range here. That and folding KK preflop against 1 raiser is way too weak-tight to be a winning player at SNGs.

[thecove 0]

Push in there! Unless you know for sure the villain has AA and you do have some intel.