An Interesting Hand

I've won about $800 back today and played fairly well in a shortish session. One intriguing hand came up where I would strongly question my opponent's play. I'll talk through it and you'll see what I mean.

I'm on the button and all players involved have a full stack ($400). Player A raises to $16 and B then reraises to $44, me to act and I have KK - pretty good but the number of times that reraise means AA on this level is ridiculously high so dropping the hand is a genuine option. I decided to flat call the raise. Two reasons I decided to do this, first is that it means I can get away from any flop with an A or a big reraise from the initial raiser. The other is that my call is extremely scary (or should be to the other 2 players) and will hopefully curb the preflop action allowing me to make my decisions based upon the flop.

Player A completes and the flop comes 778. This is an excellent flop for me as I am only likely to be behind to AA and it also enables QQ,JJ to pay me off handsomely if they decide that they may be good. Action is checked to me which is great news as barring a 7 I now am certain I am ahead in the hand. I bet a 2/3 pot $84 and player A calls and B folds.As I was more worried about player B this is superb for me. Turn comes with a 9 and after it is checked to me any bet I make commits me and I opted for the overbet push which probably look weaker than a lesser bet - however either way I am comitting myself to the pot so the best course of action is the one which brings my opponent in most often and I think the overbet lets my opponent decide that I am blufign often enough to make it possible. River came a 2 and my opponent showed the JJ as an $830 pot was pushed my way.

Here is my problem with my opponent's play - my flat call pre-flop and my opponents reraise should be sending massive warning signs to a hand like JJ. OK he has an overpair to the board BUT there is big action and not only is he facing an $84 bet on the flop but also the original reraiser is still going to be acting after him - to me this is a really easy fold with virtually no exceptions. However a call is okish if you play a really quite loose game.

On the turn he would be much better off pushing as it at least gives me the option of folding (I wouldn't have) however when he faces a bet larger than pot size and assuming he's paying attention he must be aware that the chances are that I have AA,KK,QQ and he has 6 outs, or in other words it's not worth it.

However he calls and I imagine he is already saying the words I know you have AK in a bout of foolish misplaced optimism. It is amazing how often people put you on AK to justify calling, the number of times you see this typed into chat is quite extraordinary.

I love players who not only can't get away from their big hands but especially those who call off all their chips rather than betting them strongly and giving me a decision to make.

Steve