Tough Situation

[Bob314]

I'm playing in a weekly home game. $1/$2 NLH $100 max buy in. It is late in the night, about 6 hours into the session and we are down to 5 handed play. I have had a rediculously cold run of cards and have tilted off 1 buy in trying to put a move on someone preflop. I have played almost no hands because of the cold run and I recently reloaded for $20 to get back to a full buy in. I finally picked up A-K twice and won 2 small pots so I'm a little bit over 1 buy in. Everyone at the table has me covered easily.

A friend of mine is playing on my right and is in the SB. I'm in the BB with K[c]5[c]. UTG folds, UTG+1 calls, button limps, SB almost raises but decides to just call. UTG+1 and the button are both very lose and could have any two cards. I check.

Pot: $8
Flop: K[s]10[s]5[s]

2 pair is the best hand I've had all night! Sweet! SB checks and I decide to lead out for $6 here. UTG+1 raises to $12. button folds and the SB folds and it is back on me. Here is the problem. I know from watching this guy and playing with him that when he minimum raises he has a strong holding. The thing is that I have top pair-bottom pair! I can't just run around giving these guys credit for flopping flushes (only happens .5% of the time!) but at the same time I know he has a strong holding. I'm out of position, what do I do? If I re-raise I think I need to make it between $36 and $48 total. If he goes all in, great, I can fold, but what if he just calls? Now I'm stuck out of position with two betting rounds to go and I would really like to get to showdown here. I don't trust him to be aggressive enough to push if he has the best hand, so I don't really like re-raising. Should I try check calling down hoping that he doesn't charge me too much? Should I just fold because I don't know where I'm at and he has signified strength? I decided to call and check the turn. I was off my game enough at this point that I didn't really want to consider folding.

Pot: $32
Turn: K[s]10[s]5[s]7[c]

Well it isn't a 4th spade, so if he held something like a pair and flush draw he still hasn't gotten there. I check to him and he bets $12 into the $32 pot. This is a pretty weak bet, and I decide that I'm going to come over the top here. I make it $48 to go. My opponent thinks for a bit and then calls it.

Pot: $128
River: K[s]10[s]5[s]7[c]3[h]

Alright. If he had a pair and a flush draw or a flush draw he still hasn't got there. He had to have flopped the flush. I feel I made my biggest mistake of the hand here. I actually forgot about the minimum raise on the flop and got the idea in my head that I should move all in here. The rest of my stack was right at a half-pot bet. My opponent thinks for about 30 seconds and calls and turns over the flopped flush ( I don't remember his exact holdings but it was some kind of combination of 9, 7, or 4). I may have done some silly things in the hand leading up to this point but I feel like by far my worst mistake was not checking the river. This guy is so bad maybe he actually checks behind me because of the size of the pot. Should he go all in I can't realistically call after he has raised my flop bet and called a very strong check-raise.

What do you guys think about this hand? Would you have played it differently aside from not moving in on the river? Maybe just call the small bet on the turn hoping to boat and check-call the river since he seems to be willing to be so small? Really I was off my game enough I probably shouldn't have been playing at this point, but I'd ridden to the game with my friend so I couldn't really leave and these guys were playing so bad I knew that if I could just pick a strong holding I could turn the night around.

[Dumb Snowman]

Trust your read, he's either got the flush or a set. Both of which will beat your 2-pair.

[HappyBenny]

Honestly, you can't do much against a flopped monster, especially when you get a great hand as well. Turn bet was too aggressive against a board like that, but when he called it you have to put him on a great hand.

One of the keys of good play is making sure you make someone pay for drawing, but at the same time not giving your opponent value. Sometimes I get so involved trying to read what my opponent has or trying to get the most out of them that I trap myself.

[Mad Genius]