I'm playing a $2/$5 blind NL HE game with a $100-$300 buy-in at my friendly neighborhood casino and the following hand comes up. I'm going to give you a piece at a time - play it with me - what do you do?

Short-handed game, 6-players and it's folded around to the button. He has about $475 in front of him and raises to $15. I'm in the big blind and I have him covered - I have about $1000. Here's a little about this guy: He's not a terrible player but he thinks he's better than he is. He's been playing with me the last couple of sessions I've played and likes to mix it up with me. Basically, he feels challenged by my aggressiveness and good-naturedly decides that he's not gonna be bullied by me and when the two of us are in a pot together he tries to out-do me in the aggression department.. So he has a habit of coming after me. He's raised his button three times tonight when it was checked around to him - but each time was to $25... this time was $15. What range of hands do you think he has?

The small blind folds and I look down to find two red kings. What do you do?

I'll post more after some responses.

TUP

Knowing that you have an aggressive image I bump it up to $40. I can hardly believe that he would fold for $25 more when he's been trying to out-aggress you. You give him proper odds to hit a set but even if he doesn't he sounds to be quite trappable postflop and with a raise to $40 there will be more than $80 in the pot already. He probably won't give you credit for a monster if you raise a lot and might even decide to come over the top with something like AQ or TT.

On the flop I would either use a weak lead or checkraise any non-Ace flop but that's assuming you raise to $40 and he calls.

With only a $15 raise rather than a $25 raise, I think he might be looking for a call here with a pretty strong hand. Maybe this is my experience from tonight talking where the big stack at my table raised the minimum three times w/ KK, but since you claimed he was tired of your bullying, and he changed his raise amount to a smaller amount...I think he is inviting a reraise or call here.

I put him on a small range of hands w/ either a pocket pair or AK, AQ, but a higher PP like TT or JJ, maybe QQ.

Time to bully him again I think...if he feels that he is getting bullied here, I say keep it up and play the same; this is the type of aggressive hand that rewards and aggressive player's game...and I hate to slowplay this here out of position too. I reraise pretty high too, maybe up to $55-$60 even, and show him you are the boss of the table...and hopefully he gets really crazy with his hand here.

Wow, I just read that and don't like it much...but, still learning that aggressive style...maybe one day.

I agree that he has a big hand. The problem is that I think theres a fairly good chance he has AA. Personally Im not sure I would want to play a monster pot right here.

I think the flat call is good just for that reason. Yeah, if he ends up having QQ then you might wish you had reraised and made the pot bigger, but Id rather not be guessing as to whether its AA or QQ. He clearly is trying to trick you by raisng smaller so he doens have KJ again or QT or anything like that.

I think I check/call the flop (assuming he bets a fairly normal 3/4 to full pot bet.

I agree the meek bet looks like he's trying to set you up. But you then have to ask yourself if he's setting up the play that way knowing you'll think he's got a large pair. He can't figure you at all for the KK and I'd let him continue with his course of action.

I'd check and see what he does. If it's another weak bet or even a check behind I'd say he's trying to trap with AA but if he comes out and overbets the pot then what? That would say to me that he might have QQ or JJ. Maybe he's showing you he's worried about overcards when he's not or seeming to overplay AK hoping you'll bite on a hand like JJ or TT. I don't play using the 3rd levels of thinking because I'm an online player and trying to get that deep only leads to out thinking yourself. In this case I agree with your sentiment that you want to bust him and I'd stay in for the right price to see a showdown or hit a possible 2 outer to bust him but if he comes alive I'd fold and wait for a better spot. If the case K comes out and he does have AA you'll get his stack for sure by keeping the action slow and low and then betting strong. Interesting hand.

Jesse,

No, I have no intention of doubling him up if he has AA. Danhdan hit the nail right on the head in my opinion. - he checks the flop behind me if he has AA. On the turn I check again and he has to try and sell a call to me - seeing as I checked twice in a row he's got to figure he's not going to win much so I really can't imagine that he'd bet more than $30 or $40 on the turn after I checked twice. I'll call - but I'll spend alot of time before I do. I want to slow him down on the river and have him try to milk me for another $50 or so. I'll probably pay him off btw if he keeps it at $50 - but there is no chance that I'll double him up if he plays it this way - and I believe he will.

TUP

Hi, just thought I'd throw my two cents in, albeit a bit late.

This is a pretty interesting hand. I think most players would be way too tempted to want to either
A) make a big reraise preflop thereby comitting yourself to the hand, therefore going broke if he has AA

B) Try to make a huge raise either on the flop, on the turn or use a weak lead on either street to try and make a big raise.

It's interesting that you would play this hand slowly and only call down the pot-sized bets. By check-calling, and for most "good" players, they would limit themselves to only betting the size of the pot, which in turn limits your losses, and win potential. It's a conservative view but I do like it because you're not risking your entire stack on a guess and two, you still win a fair sized pot if you are calling down pot-sizers.

But what to do in the case of a big bet on the river, such as an all-in? Would people here beat the man into the pot or would they tank it and contemplate a fold even?