Kings at the Legion

Kings were my salvation and my undoing tonight at the Legion tournament. The first time I got them an early position player raised and I flat called to make sure there was no ace on the flop. With a 9/10/3 flop the early raiser bet and I raised 3x his bet and he called my raise. The turn was another small card, he checked and I bet 300 into the 700 pot, he called. River brought a jack and he declared all-in. I questioned him, jacks??? 10's??? With a possible straight on board with KQ I folded my kings face up and he showed.....pocket queens. Bad fold as you will learn later.

My next experience with pocket kings was an aggressive young player raising big in early position. I check my cards and hmmm, pocket aces. I re-raise all-in and he tanks but finally calls (I have him covered) and he shows.....pocket kings. My aces hold up and he is gone. Our table breaks down shortly afterwards and I go to a new table. A few hands in I look at .....pocket kings in the big blind with about 4 limpers. I raise big (to 1700 with blinds at 100/200) and an early position limper reraises me all=in. Everyone folds except for the small blind who goes into the tank. Finally someone calls time on him and he folds sheepishly, since he thought it was my action. I call having the reraiser covered, and he shows....pocket aces. They hold up and I am back to original chips.

A few hands later, I am in the big blind again with 3/5. The pocket ace guy, Don, limps again and I am suspicious. Erik, the guy I should have knocked out earlier also limps on the cutoff. The flop comes queen/3/4. I check and so does everyone else. The turn is a 6 which gives me an open end straight draw plus my pair of 3's. I go all-in for 1500 with the pot at 1400 and both limpers call. The turn is a 9, they both check, and the early limper shows JJ (another trap), while the button who I should have knocked out earlier takes the pot with AQ.

One last KK story. I am playing tonight after getting knocked out of the live tournament in an online tourney. I am down to almost nothing and pick up KK in the blind. My allin is called by JJ and 33 and A5 suited. The jacks hit the two outer and I am eliminated. Two tournaments out with pocket kings.