Playing 0.05-0.10 cash 6 max on pokerstars.

Stacks are ($6 ish mine) villain ($11 ish)

I have KJo in position pre flop. a raise of 0.30 folds around to me, I raise to $1. Raiser calls.

Flop K35 2 hearts (35). I shove my remaining $4 into a $2 pot.

Villian snaps with JJ (1 heart) turn 6 heart river J.

Is it just me or should JJ be folded on the flop here after my shove? Seems like a nitty call to me. I would have no problem folding JJ in this spot. He has a backdoor flush and 2 outs to hit a J. Surely he thinks I'm on a flush draw, if he thinks I'm shoving with no K in my hand then what does he think I could possibly have? Q10 hearts?

Thoughts?

He's calling because you're short stacked and can be expected to jam a huge amount here.

He should 4-bet pre. You should buy-in full.

I did buy in full, however went down to half my stack. I had near to half his stack pre flop. The fact he calls on over bet of $4 in a $2 pot is wide. I must be looking strong here a lot of the time yet he still calls

Set auto-rebuy to 100bb.

Short stackers jam a lot here because they don't have the chips to barrel multiple streets, and they don't want to have to bet/fold their equity with bluffs. You can be perceived to be pushing a lot of bluffs here.

Why would you shove KJ here anyway if you think people are folding JJ?

This.

Seems like a poor strategy if you want every hand worse to fold.

To scoop the pot obviously. Should I just try bet into a $2 with $4 behind and look weak? Then he bets pot amount and makes it look like he has AK or nut flush draw?

So if you had JJ and it was a K high board with a shove to call your saying you'd call?

I didn't say that at all.

Please explain this in better detail please so I understand what you mean by this "Why would you shove KJ here anyway if you think people are folding JJ?"

Thanks

He is pointing out a flaw in your thoughtprocess. What he is saying is that, If you shove here and it is true that JJ is folding, you are betting and never getting called by a worse hand. If you cannot get called by a worse hand, it does not make sense to bet, since youre never getting a better hand to fold and a worse hand to call. You would turn a hand that has good showdownvalue into a bluff, which is a bad thing. Bluffing has to be better than checking and checking is always +EV w showdown value.
However, I don't expect a fold from JJ or even lower pairs here. So shoving is definetly a valuebet. But I don't think shoving is best
To "scoop up the pot" is not a reason to shove.
I don't hate his call on this dry board vs a shortstack

I'm not the one who said that statement. I agreed with it though and so I will explain why from my point of view.

From what you said your strategy is to shove the flop in the hopes of him folding all worse hands. You want to win the pot right then and there. The problem with that strategy is you are risking $4 to win $2. Your opponent is going to be calling you anytime he has the proper direct odds with his draws and anytime you are beat and mostly folding anytime you have the best hand. I haven't run the math and don't intend to but I can't imagine that this is a positive strategy long-term.

Winning cash game poker is about extracting as much EV out of your hands as you can. You are looking for any little edge you can gain to increase your EV. Playing the way you are is missing out on a lot of value. You can't be afraid of being outdrawn on later streets. You want to have them calling with flush draws when you hold a made hand as long as they aren't getting the right odds to hit their draws.

If you want to bet the flop here, bet something like 50% pot ($1) and then shove on safe turns.

Also, don't be results oriented. You got your opponent to call here drawing to 1 out. You got horribly unlucky, it happens.

Getting called by worse hands is one of the way you win monies at the game of poker. Some people take it too far and don't seem to realize the importance of winning pots but that's certainly not the case here.

You can read my mind right? (+1)

Plus i'm not really sure on the question. We absolutely want villain calling with JJ in this spot. I do think however most of the time you are not getting called by worse with such a large overbet. Bet 50-70% of flop in future and re-evaluate from there.

If you think all hands that are worse than a pair of kings should fold to your bet, you should shove your entire range here. You have lots of hands with a pair of kings or better, and villain hardly ever has -- an early position raiser that calls (and doesn't raise) a three bet from a shortish-stack on the button is unlikely to have AK, AA or KK, probably won't have KJo, KTo, 33 or 55, may or may not have KQo, and may not even have KJs. That only leaves 3 combinations of KQs.

I actually think shoving your entire range here is pretty good with your stack size. With a full stack, I'd bet 1/3 of the pot with my entire range because that puts almost all of villain's range to a difficult decision. Betting 1/3 of the pot is probably better with the shorter stack too if you can barrel appropriately.

Villain's play is good against a thinking player -- JJ with one heart is one of the best hands they can reasonably have. (Although as other people have said, it should have been 4-bet preflop).

Villain's play isn't good against straightforward players who will only jam with a pair of kings or better (and perhaps the occasional flush draw). Perhaps that's how you play -- in which case, you'd be better thinking about how to play better rather than wondering how opponents can make such apparently silly calls and suck out on you.

Thanks for your reply. It helped and made me realise how I played the hand, I need to work on my bet sizing (it can be awful). I want to learn more about EV play. Is there any threads regarding this? Thanks

Thanks for the reply! I am trying to improve a lot but still make silly mistakes I need to file down and sort out.

which position did he raise from?

this might be a fold pre.

do you have tracking software?

It's possible villain read your overbet as a spazzy move or weighted more towards fds than value hands. My experience of short stackers at the micros is that they would shove all fds and a Kx on this flop hu. At this level it's also likely villain was just looking at his own hand and the thought process was along this line; JJs is a premium hand I'm not folding.

This is not a strat post; it's a bad-beat story.

Would this hand stick in your mind if the river card were a brick?

The answer to your question is, obviously, this player calls here. Take a note and move on.

It would still stick. When he called and I saw JJ I was like pffttt why's he called with JJ. He just got lucky to hit a 1 outer. I'd just like to know some reason behind his call.

He raised OOP then I re-raised and he flat called. He checks the flop, I shove and he tanks for around 20 seconds and calls. I do not have tracking software but vivaro for $5 a month seems reasonable to get as this is not much tracking software but would be helpful as you can see how many times villain raised PF and c bet etc etc

That does Not answer the question of His position! Just that he is OOP. it makes a difference if he opened from CO or MP...

Can't really remember specific position tbh need to remember more details for future posts