Play of the Day

Situation: Home game; 5 handed; No Limit Hold 'Em; $0.25/$0.50 blinds

Player under the gun raises in the dark to $1.50. I look down at Qs-Qc and reraise to $4.50. The button folds, the small blind and big blind call the $4.50 as does the dark raiser. The pot is now at $18. The flop comes Ks-6h-6c. Action checks to me and I bet $9. The small blind now raises me $9 more, for a total of $18. Both remaining players fold. I reraise another $9 to make it $27 total. The small blind raises $20 more, for a total of $47. I reraise all in for about $80 total. Small blind folds, I win the pot.

Analysis: The small blind knew I was making a feeler/continuation bet when I led out for $9 on the flop with my 2 pair. So, a good play is to check-raise to represent at least kings up and get me off of the hand. At the same time, a minimum raise is a feeler raise just as my initial bet was a feeler bet. I didn't think the small blind could call another raise, but I didn't want to over value my hand in case I was beat. I also felt that if I was beat by a hand like A-K or 6-x, the small blind would reraise me all in. So, when I was only reraised $20, I felt like the small blind was up to some thievery and I pushed all in. The small blind admitted to having A-J and complimented me on my good play/read.