Sticky tricky

$5-$10 NLH, 8 handed. Effective stacks 50BBs. Limps from UTG and Button. Hero has in SB and bets 8x BBs. Only the BB calls. Flop is . Hero bets half pot and gets called. Turn is . Hero bets half pot again trying to fold a weak A with an open-ender. If my play was suspect, feel free to comment. I'm playing against average aggressive opponents.

Hi Gorblimey,

From my Point of view, If I was said Opponent, I would never have guessed the hands you actually have (K4). I would have thought you do have pocket pair or AK/AQ/AJ. For the BB to protect his Hands like this, I can imagine him having either A2-A10, suited connectors, or pocket pairs as well.

If BB calls your half pot bet, he must see something he likes on the flop. Wouldn't call with suited connectors JT as an example. But A2, 56, 67? Probably would call.

On the other Hand, if you fire preflop and c-bet on flop, I would guess you must have now trips (AAA, 333, 555). With the Chance to a straight draw like here, I would call as the Opponent did. And on the turn - either you get lucky or the other gets lucky.

Bottomline, if you're Goal was to disguise your Hand and balance your Play - well done ;-)

In preflop at 5x it is more than enough. On the flop you can bet a little less and then make up for it with your second-largest barrel on the turn. At this point, middle combinations that block Ax will continue, so you must be prepared for a polarized bet on the river, if you manage to get a 2 way confrontation on the fifth street. Otherwise it is less likely to achieve fold equity and we could only check that river. I don't find the jam profitable if we couldn't eliminate a villain on the turn.
Greetings.

You chose to bloat the pot preflop with a serious trouble hand from the worst position at the table. A recipe for disaster...

As others have said. Terrible hand to try and steal with OOP with so many limpers. Sizing seems good for a live game though. This board is all clubs although you've used two different colors. Nothing wrong with stabbing flop but then I'm giving up OTT. If we make our straight with a 4th club how often are we good? So we really only have 6 clean-ish outs. Any reads on BB? Also we could be drawing dead if he flopped a flush. If we are continuing on the turn I think we need to polarize and go 3/4 pot or more. Betting half pot again lets all the Ax and flush draws continue, maybe even some middle pairs like TT with one club.

Preflop is spew to be honest. At a soft table you can complete with K4s, but its way to bad to start isolating against limpers. As played I guess, postflop is fine.