Controlling the size of the pot

I got into another big hand the other night in my live 1/2 game. If you've read my blog on my big beat it was ironically very similar and with the same player. I lost it again and a concern of mine is that I feel like I let the size of the pot get out of control which cost me more money in the end. Here's how it played out.

My stack: $650 (from original buyin of $200)
His Stack: $700 +/-

I'm one of the blinds and he's middle position

Villian: Raises to $12 preflop
Me: KK, re-raise to $30
Villian: call

We're HU
Pot = $65 +/- with folded blinds

Flop: Jc9c3d

I'm first to act and want to take it down right now.
Me: bet $75
Villian: raise $150 ($225 total)

I remember from my last encounter (in the blog) he made the exact same raise with top pair/top kicker/nut flush draw. Obviously he can't have that scenerio but I could see him making that move with something similar.

I call.
Pot = $515

Here's where I think I lost all sort of control.

Turn = blank

What do you do here? Any realistic bet costs me my stack. A check shows weakness and gives him a free card. I opt for the later.

Me: check
Villian: check
River = blank

Me: check
Villian: Bet $200
Pot = $715

Here's where the size of the pot cost me money. His check on the turn led me to put him on top pair/top kicker which I was ahead of. $200 to a pot of $715? Obviously there's a lot of hands that beat me at this point but no flush and no realistic straights. I decided to trust my read which was right the last time I was in this situation with him.

Me: call

He turns over 99 for a set of 9s.

What could I have done differently other than the obvious of folding the flop raise? Based on my last experience with this player I'm not sure I could have folded that flop. Maybe he remembered the last situation as well and used it against me... hmmmm....

__________________

Dinero,...... switch seats w/ Villian for a moment and tell us (honestly) how you would of played the 99.

You have 99 in mid pos. whats your bet? $_____.

Villian reraises appx. 2x your initial bet. what's your move? __________

Flop gives you the set of 9's and villian makes pot size bet. What's your move here?_________.

etc............


bring us through the entire hand pretending you had the 99 and villian the KK. I'd be curious on how you think it would of turned out based on your knowledge of how villian plays.

Unless you are a seriously good player playing other seriously good players then a small/middle set or two pair is likely to be expensive, just because there are so many people we play who bet a small or middle pair like they have the nuts regardless of what you represent or the overcards on the board. If you can trust the guys you are playing maybe you can make hard decisions, otherwise you have to presume that most of the time you are winning.

first off, as i've said previously, it's best not to show the results or your final action. This just biases the results. Just because you lost doesn't mean you necessarily made a bad play.

Onto the hand. preflop you need to raise a lot more, especially live since i've heard live people tend to make looser calls. raise to 4x his bet generally a good amount in general. more if you think he will call it or if you think he's strong.

Lead out on flop is good, kinda smells like an overpair or top pair b/c you overbet, but if you bet the same way with AK or TT in this spot then thats okay.

By calling his raise on the flop you basically turn your hand into a bluff catcher. Plus you give him control of the betting. Can't really tell you for sure if you should reraise on flop or flat call as i've never played this high and wasn't at the table. I think you should lean to reraising as the flop is as drawy as it gets. calling flop and betting turn is okay too I guess to get a draw to fold.

When they check behind on turn i almost always put them on a draw or top pair weak kicker. Luckily he bet small on riv and you had easy call.

Really your biggest mistake was not raising enough preflop. It's okay to get stacked once in a while with overpair vs set, but you really want to get HU preflop and charge people to see the flop. Your opponent played it pretty terrible. You could have AK QK flush draw and checking behind on turn with set is just missing value almost everytime.

__________________
POSSIBLE RESPONSE:
SO SICK!
>I LOVE AMERICA!
ONE TIME!
NICE HAND DOCTOR <VAR: NAME>
CAN I SEE ONE CARD?

[quote=BSQUAD;171171]Dinero,...... switch seats w/ Villian for a moment and tell us (honestly) how you would of played the 99.

QUOTE]

I have a lot of respect for this person's play so I don't think he played it poorly at all. In fact I think he played me very well. Personally, the only thing I'd have done differently would have been to bet the turn. In retrospect I probably would have folded and wouldn't have gotten that extra $200

I'm confident that he put me on exactly or very close to what I had so he got what value he thought he could. if he wanted me to fold the river he'd have certainly bet more.

My biggest concern with this hand and the previous one that I mentioned in my blog is that the pot got so big so fast that I was pot committed on the flop. At that point the hand almost plays itself and all I can do is hope the chips get pushed my way.


Well, I played at this game again tonight and of course the villian was there again. The running joke all night was that I'll never play a pot with him again. The irony being almost every time he raised preflop I looked down at a big hand. It was weird. So instead of not playing any hands with him I played almost every hand with him. Fate can be so cruel.

He was having a bad run across the table so what does he do? Move right next to me! Almost to try to mess with me. At the time I got there I was into this guy for $900 - $1000, I really don't want to be close to him...

Regardless I came out in favor for $200 +/- from him so I'm only down $700 - $800 to him over all.

One time he was short stacked, raised to $25 preflop and I had QQ. I went ahead and put him all-in for $85 total and my QQ actually held up to his AQs this time. If you read my blog you'd see the irony with that hand. Unfortunately he won the one for $1100 and I won the one for $170.

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I think you played the hand alright. Villan checking the turn is bad.