Aria Deepstack

[Mikeyboy9361]

Okay, so I arrive 10 mins late and am an alterante, but within 10 minutes we have enough alternates to start a table. $125 buy in, 30 minute levels, 10k starting stack, and 120 runners.
We have been playing for about 80mins and are in the third level, and I have not seen a hand, had a dart at a couple of pots, but the table is pretty active and I haven"t managed to get anything through.
I am dealt KQ in the SB, a limp from MP, and round to the button who has been active and recently doubled up when his Aces dodged a Flush Draw, but I have him marked as very capable, he raises to 800, blinds at 100/200. I decide to call, as does the BB and the limper.
Flop comes XKX very dry board, I check with the intention of CRing, BB and MP check, and the button bets 1K, I re pop to 2.5K, the others get out, and the button shoves.
Thoughts as what to do next? Should I even be in the hand? Should I have raised pre? Should I have shoved?

[deanp27]

All options open pre, including folding. I probably don"t 3bet unless I have a solid read, which you probably don"t have yet.
Once you raise the flop, stop slowrolling.

What I mean is that when you make a raise or a bet in poker you should a reason to do so. If you want to raise a v strong hand vs an aggro opponent and then fold then thats fine, but I can"t see it being good generally as you are turning tp2k into a bluff. If you were intending to fold to a flop 3bet I would imagine check calling is way better.

Bit muddled i know cos I am on my iPhone at work

[deanp27]

Just trying to say you should have a plan when you make a raise

[dwh103]

I assume you"re on less than your starting stack after 80mins of play without getting anything through, somewhere between 8-10k? Blinds are due to go up in 10 minutes it seems to 150/300 (?), where I presume your stack will drop to 25-30BBs or so?

If the button is capable, then his raising range is pretty wide if he"s capable isolating the limper. There is 1300 in the pot before your action which is already a reasonably significant addition to your chipstack.

If you were shorter, or deeper, I"d definitely lean towards a 3bet. However your stack size is super icky being around 40BBs, 3betting to something like 11x is turning your hand into a bluff. If you"ve got 6k or less I"d probably jam. However I prefer 3betting to calling, investing near 10% of your stack to play a pot out of position 3 way against two players, including a competent button. Not saying I wouldn"t call, but I"d be doing it because I"d be caught in two minds and end up taking the middle route, which is usually the worst!

So I"d fold, or make a smallish 3bet which should look ultra strong - my choice would depend on how I felt about the button. Probably the latter and fold to a 4bet.

As played, why check-raise? Any bet should either get a worse hand to call, or a better hand to fold. No better hand is folding, hardly any poorer hands are calling and you can"t take a 3bet so your bet is achieving very little. Because KQ/KJ etc "shouldn"t" check-raise here he might disregard you having a King and stick it in your eye with QQ/JJ etc - but now it"s really hard to call. As a default I"d look to check-call my way down and value river if he checks back turn.

Because it looks like you don"t have a King, if I suddenly sit down in your seat after you"ve check-raised - I probably call. I"ve levelled myself so often in the past though.

[dwh103]

Additional - the above is based on guessing your stack size at ~8k (What was it? - it"s kinda crucial!)

[Mikeyboy9361]

Thanks for the replies so far, my stack was about 9k I think, and the other thing was the button had gone to showdown twice and shown the goods.

[dwh103]

In that case if he"s a competent TAG, I should fold. If he"s a competent LAG, I"d look to 3bet. The latter are usually pretty easy to spot! All depends on your read at the time.