First $2/$4 Attempt

Yesterday I made my first attempt at playing $2/$4, and unfortunately it didn’t go quite as well as my first $1/$2 attempt. I only played for an hour, so I don’t want to read too much into the results, but lets just say if I see frequent results like that I’m going to have to find a new hobby.

I was struck with an unfortunate combination of poor cards, and poorly timed bluffs. Whenever I did actually have cards, I couldn’t get any action, and when I tried to represent that I had cards, I got raised.

Then there was the one big hand where my pocket Kings got taken down on the river. I don’t want to turn this into a bad beat post, but I would like to know if I could have played the hand any better. First off, what do you do when you have KK in the big blind and a bunch of players limp in? Raising seems like the obvious choice, but you probably aren’t going to get anyone to fold by doing so, and it just gives them better odds for chasing their draws later on. Is raising really the best move here?

I opted to raise hoping to narrow down the field a little, but everyone else came along for the ride. The flop was [2s3c8c], and I lead out, getting two callers. A queen on the turn made it two clubs and two spades on the board. I bet and was immediately raised from a guy in middle position. I was worried he had just picked up a set of queens, but felt like I couldn’t back down now. I reraised, and he called along with the button who was stuck in between us. The river brought the 9 of spades which gave middle position two pair, and the button a flush. Ouch. That’s going to leave a mark.

So they both tried to limp preflop with low suited connectors (89 and 45). One hit top pair, and the other a straight draw on the flop. The turn gave the button a flush draw to go along with his straight draw, and I’m thinking middle position was bluffing trying to see if anyone had the queen. Had I not raised pre-flop and then gone for a check raise on the flop maybe I could have chased them out. But maybe not. I was probably just destined to lose a lot of chips on that hand. I also contend that raising preflop was the correct play even though it didn't work out well this time. There is the potential of driving out some players, and it should make everyone cautious on later streets, giving me the upper hand. If there were fewer players involoved I would be more inclined to check preflop to set a trap for the turn and river.

Anyway. I’m licking my wounds at $1/$2 for again. I’ll probably try to take another stab at $2/$4 soon.