Should I have played this hand differently?

Question

When playing at the microstakes, I found myself in the following situation where I lost about 2€, and I was wondering if I should have played the hand differently.

It's a full ring 1/2 cents game. I'm in the small blind with Kh6c and so far everyone folded (I'm not sure anymore about the 6c, but it was a relatively low kicker). Villain in the big blind has a VPIP of about 25 and I succesfully stole his blinds several times before, so I try it again. I raise to 6 cents, villain calls. I think I have quite a loose table image (VPIP of about 30 and I stole many blinds before).

Flop comes 4d7sKc. I raise by 9 cents, villain calls.

Turn is Kd, so I have three kings. I want to check-raise, so I check, villain raises and I reraise. Villain calls.

River is 9s (or something similar, it didn't really change the board so I don't remember). I bet 2/3 pot, which is about 1€ by now, villain raises by 16 cents (maybe he was all-in, I don't remember). I call.

Villain has pocket sevens, giving him a full house (three sevens and two kings). I only have three kings so I lose.

Do you think I should have played things differently? Maybe when he called my check-raise I should have abandoned the hand? When he kept calling I kind of feared he would have the fourth king and my low kicker would kill me, but figured that to be sufficiently unlikely.

Answer 1

As you don't remember every detail, your question is a bit imprecise. So let me answer with some generic arguments.

Preflop. You have to be a bit careful: you are in the small blind and Villain, in the big blind, has position on you. Since you have the feeling that Villain folds too easily, you decide to steal the blinds by raising to 6c. Why not?

However, I strongly disagree with H_7 suggestion to raise only to 4c. Doing so, Villain would just have to pay 2c in a pot of 6c, giving him 3:1 pot odds. Thus 25% equity would suffice him to call. Just to give you an idea, according to twodimes.net, 7h 2d versus As Ks has 30.7% equity and hence should call you!

Villain calls you. You should try to evaluate his range. Since you consider Villain as rather tight, you may think he has, 22 to 99, any A, any pair of broadway cards or some suited hand like 56 to 9T. Depending on your knowledge on Villain, you may add other suited hands. I suppose that he would reraise with TT+, unless you think he wants to trap you. But, in any case, the important thing for you is to immediately think about his range.

Flop. The pot is now 12c. The flop is dry and even with your weak kicker, you have top pair, so you elect to bet 9c, fine so far. Now Villain calls you, and then you should seriously think of his range. On microstake tables, players tend to play according to their hands, especially on dry boards like this. So what is Villain's range to call you? He may still have 56 suited (because of the 4 and 7), but otherwise, his range is either 44, 77, a K or perhaps 88 or 99 (and TT+ in case of traps). I discard 47 as he would not have paid preflop with this hand. Note that, if he holds a K, you are almost always behind: the only K that you beat are K2, K3 and K5. Even K4 is better than your K6. And his range is rather KT+.

Turn. It's a king. OK, you have trips now, but the range of Villain is over yours! You may try to represent AK, but that's really risky out of position. For this reason, checking is OK, but check-raising is a bad idea. You may perhaps check-call, hoping for a 6 on a river, but that's all.

River. This is your bigger mistake. Villain called your reraise and hence is very likely ahead of you. You should not bet the river.

A last note on Villain's last bet. His hand is strong but he is still beaten by K4 (6 combos), K7 (2 combos), K9 (6 combos) and KK (1 combo). Since you surely have a K, there is 8/49 chances that your second card gives you a full or quads. Not enough to prevent him to bet for value.

Answer 2

If he folds so often just raise to 4 cents not 6. He will fold trash anyway. Once he calls he HAVE something. C-beting flop is mandatory. Once he calls he HAVE something. Since you improved on turn you must bet BUT fold to any reaction since your opponent is not a maniac, he will not raise you with worst kings. On river just check fold without regrets because he HAVE something better than your weak king, no matter you have trips...