Stuffing the Pot and Folding on a Bad Turn

This is my first post and I'm excited to share some of my personal poker lessons, especially for players who know how to play hold'em but aren't at a level where they find themselves either at the final table in your local tournament often, or not making as much money online or at the casino as you wish. I'm not a professional player, but I'm ok - and this blog with your feedback will help us all get better.

Last night I had a disappointing hand but I cut my losses at the appropriate time and you should, too. I was playing $3/$6 Limit online. I'm on the button (dealer position) and get KK as my pocket cards. When this happens, you want to stuff the pot, raise as much as you can and get as much on the table as you can (unless you are an advanced player and know exactly what you are doing with softcalling, slowplaying, or trapping with your kings). Two players in front of me bet, raised, and reraised my raise to make it a $12 per person pot - around $36 (the blinds folded).

Flop comes 444 - a GREAT flop for my pocket kings! The chances of either of my opponents holding a 4 is VERY low and since they are all fours - they are all different suits, cutting the chances of a flush dramatically. I raise and am reraised, and we max out the pot again - so we have around a $72 pot... so far the betting has been loose, so I'm guessing I'll rake in $200 or more in this one hand!

The river, or fourth street, drops... it's another 4 - making four of a kind 4's and my heart drops and I vomit a little. First to act bets ($6), the other player simply calls. Here I am with Kings, but the chance of one of my opponents having an ace, based on their past starting hands (and the bets of the better player staying in with what I guess is Ax suited), is very high - and any card combination with an A has my two Kings beat - I'm basically drawing dead. I figure I have about a 1 in 200 of actually having the high hand at this point, and I quickly fold.

The river comes K (which wouldn't even help my pocket KK) - the opponents raise and reraise to max out the pot. They show cards - one has AQ suited (as I'd guessed) and the other has KQ suited. I put the KQ suited player in my notes and may take advantage of him later. The AQ suited wins the huge pot and a ton of the KQ's money, and I got out only loosing $24 (less than half of what the KQ lost) - an easy loss compared to the mistake I would have made had I stayed in the hand with my very good looking KK and heavy preflop and flop betting rounds.

(an alternate play would be to raise on the turn, because my stronger opponent could have had a pocket pair and I could have won the pot with a little investment. This could be an acceptable play in some cases but my instincts said otherwise)

Remember, minimize your losses... but don't let anyone push you around in the process.