KK on 9♣ 5♦ 2♥, checked to you — bet or check?
The answer
Bet
value + protection
Best size: ⅓ pot · $4
The math: Dry, low, disconnected — your overpair beats every pair and draw the caller can turn up with.
Why
You raised pre and hold a commanding overpair on a board that connects with almost nothing the Big Blind kept. Every small pair, gutshot, and pair-plus-overcard they called with is drawing thin against your kings, and each one will pay a bet. Checking throws that value away and hands a free card to the ace that could arrive and beat you. Bet — and keep it small: on a board this dry the worse hands only pay a modest price, so a ⅓-pot bet collects from all of them while a big one folds them out.
The spot
- Your seat
- BTN
- Stakes and stacks
- $1 / $2 · 100bb
- Your hand
- K♥ K♦
- Board
- 9♣ 5♦ 2♥
- Pot
- POT · $12
- Action on you
- BB checks
Every option
Checkpot control
Why not: Checking passes up an easy round of value from all the worse pairs that would call, and it gives a free card to the only overcard that beats you — an ace.
Betvalue + protectionCorrect
⅓ pot · $4 · ⅔ pot · $8 · pot · $12
The idea behind it
An overpair on a dry, low, disconnected flop is close to the top of your range. Nothing the caller continued with beats it, so you bet for two reasons at once: worse hands call for value, and the bet denies overcards a cheap chance to draw out.
Concept: Value + protection
Terms in this spot
Play it instead of reading it
The trainer deals this hand with hints, grading and spaced repetition — and randomized variations of it once you have seen it.