How to Play King-High on the River
Today's hand comes from early in a $3,000 buy-in World Series of Poker no-limit hold'em event. It ends with me having to decide whether or not to "bluff catch" with king-high on the river. Read on and decide how you would play this hand.
With the blinds 100/200, I opened to 500 from middle position with K?Q? and the only caller was the big blind, a somewhat splashy player.
The flop came A?10?2? and my opponent checked. Here I think it's fine to go ahead and make a small continuation bet pretty frequently. In this case I bet 500 and my opponent called.
With 2,300 in the middle, the turn brought the 5? and another check from my opponent. In the video below I speculate about my opponent's range here and how if I were to bet he'd likely be calling with marginal made hands (which I'm behind) and draws (which I'm beating).
I ultimately chose to check, the river brought the 4?, and my opponent bet 500.
Should I fold my king-high? Should my opponent's splashy image encourage me to call? Or does that image mean I should fold, actually? What does the small bet signify (a marginal made hand)? All I beat are the busted draws, but are there enough of those in my opponent's range to justify calling?
Watch below to see what I decided and also to listen to how I analyze this river decision.
Jonathan Little is a professional poker player and author with over $7,000,000 in live tournament earnings. He writes a weekly educational blog and hosts a podcast at JonathanLittlePoker.com. Sign up to learn poker from Jonathan for free at PokerCoaching.com. You can follow him on Twitter @JonathanLittle.
