TheFoo

Anything and everything Harrington.

Oops just saw you stated the pot was $100 going to the flop. Still I think the learning point has to do with bet/raise sizing in these games relatively short stacked. I've found that the live $1/$2 and $1/$3 games are playing bigger and feel much more like the $2/$5 games of a few years ago. I haven't sat down at a $2/$5 table in a few years so I can't imagine how big those are playing now.

I agree this is just a typical UL hand for KK, and one you should be completely prepared for, however you bet sizing is all wrong for me. $25 seems like a bit much for the preflop raise, but it's not terrible. $20 would probably do it, but I don't hate $25 since you want to push the limpers and even make sure the BB doesn't come in too. But on the flop you have a $75-$80 pot and you bet 75% when 50% ($40) would be enough. Easy mistake is to feel like you need to bet big to push out weaker hands. If they are calling for odds, it's bad math for them to hit the straight draw, flush draw maybe but that's not applicable here. Also, you started off pretty short stacked (<100 BB won't go far with this aggressive betting), and now are pot committed with no information at this point on their relative hand strength. A CBet of $40 would still get a raise out of the JJ guy, anyone that missed this flop should fold, and you can at least attempt to get away and lose $60 instead of $85, saving over 20% of your stack.

I like the line of checking this flop and seeing what comes on the turn. It looks suspicious that you didn't CB and could slow the action down, and since you are OOP you get info if you get a bet that you obviously call. That being said, I probably would have CB and called the all-in and lost my whole stack (which I assume is what happened to you from your comment), but these are the types of hands you could possibly get away from (in hindsight...).