Cowboys-my nemises

connie147

Pocket kings are giving me loads of grief lately,and after being dumped out of two mtt's yesterday,im writing for help.Ive experimented playing them in different ways but id like boardsters opinions on what way they play them in similar scinarios.
Hand 1--€10,000 gtd, we're on the bubble.have been for about 15 mins.Im sitting on a healthy enough stack and ive been playing the bubble well ,increasing my stack by 50% in last 15 mins.ive 22,000 and villian(no reads,new to table) has 26,000.av.stack 13,000.blinds-500-1,000.villian raises to 3,500(utg+2),I smooth call in the c/o with k-k,rest of the table folds.(I wanna see if an ace comes on the flop). flop Js-8s-4d, villiand leads for 4,000,I push and he calls instantly with 8-8,Im bubbled with a player on only 900 chips.
Hand 2--€5000 gtd shorthand (6 player).15 players left,14 for the money.villian(lag)--30,000, me 28,000, av stack-16,000 blinds 500-1000
villian in the c/o raises to 4,000,I flat call on the button with position with KK,
rest of table fold. Flop:10d-6h-2c,villian bets 5000,I push and he calls with AA.
Now I know this could be just variance,but am I contributing to my own downfall.When I get to this stage of a tourney on line,if I have position on an aggressive raiser and I have a big hand ie:AA or KK,I do smooth call a lot (PF)in order to try and get their stack by not giving away my hand.
Ive a pretty good mtt record on line but KK has put me out of 4 or 5 decent tourneys lately so id appreciate your advice.Limping in to the money doesent do it for me.
Criticism welcome.

cardshark202

Re-raise preflop. Get all your money in with your opponent drawing slim rather than the other way around. If you run into aces, c'est la vie.

MadsL

Get the money in is sound advice, you probably don't want to see a flop. Of course there are always muppets....
Fri night SE cash game.
KK UTG+1
I make it 7
MP Pots it
I repot
He re-re-pots
I'm all-in (185 euro re-re-raise)
He calls (I think, oh oh)
Ask him does he have aces, he says no...I say "Its a big pot, do you want to run it twice?" He says No.
He turns over.....

....


....AJo!!:eek: (wtf?)

Spikes his ace (my head explodes)

fuzzbox

I think you played both hands fine. Its perfectly fine to trap somebody when the stacks are this shallow.

Just try really hard to make sure that your opponents dont flop sets, and dont have Aces.

imalegend

i hate cowboys....even when i flop top set of them i seem 2 lose...so if your playing against me and you see me crying wheni push all my chips in you know what i have!!

Gholimoli

get money in preflop.
there are alot of hands that may feel like gambling pre-flop and call you but will not call you after they see the flop or if they do they would prob be ahead of a single pair such as 88,AK,AQ,99 etc.

ianmc38

Hand 1: Reraise/Push, no need to get trappy or try to avoid ace high flops. 20% of our stack is in the middle. We should be happy to take that down
Hand 2: Unlucky

gerry87

Hand 1 I say push preflop... he's on the bubble too, if he has AK, will he risk his tourney knowing he's probably behind? If he has a QQ or lower then he knows it's at best a race. If he has aces then all the money's going in by the end anyway and seeing the flop won't really help you to get away from it.

fuzzbox

gerry87 wrote:

Hand 1 I say push preflop... he's on the bubble too, if he has AK, will he risk his tourney knowing he's probably behind? If he has a QQ or lower then he knows it's at best a race. If he has aces then all the money's going in by the end anyway and seeing the flop won't really help you to get away from it.

So what do you gain by shoving ?????

Norwich Fan Rob

we want people to think their QQ, JJ is good, or to have a stab at the pot by way on continuation bet...........i play both these hands exactly as Connie did, its the best way to get someones stack imo..........just ul.

If however someone raised utg, and i was utg+1, then i reraise, i want to ensure either i have position and try and keep the hand heads up.