2/3/5 with 10 straddle. $1000 max buy in.

UTG limps $10

Villain is tight aggressive (at times nit like) winning player that I have played against many times. He likes to trap aggressive players. I have never seem him caught bluffing in a big pot once. Every hand I have played a stack sized pot with him he has had the nuts. $2500 stack. Raises to $70 from HiJack

Me. $4500. Very likely viewed as loose and very aggressive, but this player knows I have significantly tightened my range against him. Small blind. I look at KK. I raise to $275.

UTG fold.

Villain tanks for a minute. He pops it to $975.

I have never seen him get out of line with a bet like this.

I have never in my life folded KK pre-flop. But I could not think of another hand this specific player would do this with. Historically he has shown that he would call in position with QQ and AK and look to play perfectly post flop.

So, KK and AA, weighted towards AA?

I fold, exploitatively. I am just not sure whether I exploited myself.

I mean based on your description it seems like a fold is reasonable. Though I'd have to be really really really really really really really really really really sure on my read.

Yeah good fold man. People make a big deal about folding KK pre and yeah, it's rare but some players have literally no hands in their 4bet range except AA and KK.

His 4bet size is pretty bad but r u ruling out AK?

I play in a couple of rooms and literally their only 3! Or 4! Has to be AA. I would fold KK with no worries to these types.

My KK makes AK less likely (but not impossible). I think AQ is a nice bluffing hand to use in this spot.
He has shown he would always call QQ here.

I showed, mostly to make the regulars think I am much more nitty than I really am. Lot's of oohs and ahhs followed. He didn't show but later on, as I was leaving, I asked what he had. He wasn't expecting the question, as it was 4 hours later, and he stammered and stuttered and mumbled as if he was trying to come up with a lie. So I think he had AA.

Try thinking about why this may be a bad thing

In a vacuum, it definitely is. I thought it made sense here.

If I am playing 5/10 in Vegas, I am not showing (or folding).

I’m not sure how familiar u r with combinatorics but if u give him AK then he actually still has more combos of AK than AA

There’s 16 natural AK and u block 8 down to 8 combos and there’s 6 combos of AA

Yeah, it cuts the number of AK's in half. That's a lot. And now there are only 3 combos of KK.

Further (and maybe erroneously) I placed the probability of him 4-betting me with AK (for 100bb preflop) and effectively committing himself to all in (for 250bb) as highly unlikely. If he had only 100bb I would give him credit for playing like that (and I am calling).

But it is possible he is more high level a player than I gave him credit for.

So, do you call preflop, or shove for (effective) 250bb?

I just realized this was a 2/3/5 game with an optional $10 straddle (which was on in this pot).
So technically his 4 bet was about 200bb.

When u have double K then there’s only 1 combo of KK left

But if u think that the probability of him doing it with AK is highly unlikely then yeah u fold I guess

I will just never understand why someone would do this. So so bad. Why not be the guy that quietly folds KK where he can get away with it and leaves no one the wiser?

Fold and tell him you were bluffing

Ego.

This is why I can't fold, here. Succinct and good as always, hyperknit.

Surely there is only 1 combo of KK as you have two of them leaving two in the wild. These 2 Kings can only form one KK combo

Unimproved, do you ever call his shove on the flop? If you always call a non-ace flop shove, why not shove pre-flop to prevent him from playing AK perfectly?

Yes, to the first question, provided an Ace doesn't hit. AA over KK at 250 straddles is a cooler. An expensive cooler, but a cooler. It sounds like you might be sufficiently familiar with V's range to know they never do this with anything but KK+. Opening 7x over a limper may bolster that read. In that case, of course we fold. But we have to know that's their range exactly.

We don't 5! shove because we want V continuing with all of their AK and other stuff that they'll fold to a 5! pf, yet might place another bet/call a bet postflop without an Ace hitting. If V will call the 5! with AK, then ofc shove.

Would a villain bet 40% of his stack pre-flop and then fold to a shove pre-flop? Why would they fold AK preflop to a shove when it would be 1500 to win a pot that was 4000? I reasoned (maybe incorrectly) this bet sizing meant they were committed no matter what happened. What competent player would bet 40% of their stack with the intent to fold? So I reasoned it was all in or fold pre-flop.

I view him as tight aggressive, but not creative.

In general I disagree with everyone here that showing hands is bad. I show hands all the time. If I played them in a standard way and someone asks then I'll show.

If it's a huge exploit postflop then I won't show and I probably wouldn't show in this case since it is an exploit to fold kings but it's also not the end of the world because no one is going to be able to exploit you in 4bet pre spots this deep. They'll be too scared to pull the trigger

Live players are too dumb (in terms of poker) to do anything with the info you give them and don't have the balls to do anything with this info anyways

Maybe, but all you're offering the table is a free roll of info on you. Maybe they can use it or maybe not.

Still doesn't change the fact that this kind of show is only due to a person trying to show off which is why I said ego.

But as a player at the table I'm happy to get all the info I can get and love to see people leveling themselves because they're not sure if I'm doing something based on a hand they showed.

It's not ego. It's being friendly and keeping games light which are both +ev long term.

If I raise co and bb calls then folds flop K62r after I cbet 1/3 pot and asks me to show it literally doesn't matter at all. I raised my co open range and then range bet a K hi board. There's nothing he can do with that info because it's solver approved. Ie unexploitable

What about your LAG image? Even knowing you have tightened up against him you surely dont just 3bet KK+ in this spot. What if he's getting tricky with AQ because of the image he has? His sizing is very large and that is likely indicative of nutted value but he can occasionally spaz out and try to bluff. If you are sure he always flats JJ,QQ,AK then it's a good fold but that is a huge assumption. If he's 4b with that range at some frequency then you are getting the odds to call. I think I am calling here looking to keep that range in. Play will be straightforward postflop: we fold to his shove a lot, he gives up some times, we flop additional equity and commit some times. A very tough spot at 200bb indeed.