Common spot i find myself spewing.

[LTL]

6 max $24+2 double stack freezout on FullTilt.

Table in general has been very active with a lot of 3 betting from the beginning. Average stack is 4,5k.

Villian has not been at the table long and has given me no reason to think he's been out of line over a small sample.

Hero(button) 3,500.
Villian (BB) 4,200.
Blinds 50/100

Folded to me on the button with KcQs and i make it 250.
SB folds, BB calls.
Pot 550.

Flop 4c4sKd.

Villian checks and I bet 350. Villian quickly min raises to 700 and I call.
Pot 1950.

Turn 9d.

Villian checks, I bet 1050 hoping to get called by worse kings and 55-88 and not wanting to give a free card to some funky back door diamond draw.
Opinions? Should I be checking behind to control pot size with the intention of calling any river?

River 2c.

Villian shoves and has me covered. Having played the hand like so is the river ever a fold leaving me with 1500? I now only really beat air and hate the spot but find myself calling off here a lot which is a major leak in my game.

My questions are, how should i play the turn once checked to me, and is the river now a call?

[Hectorjelly]

Think about what you are doing. Firstly, why bet the flop? Secondly, if you want to play a small pot (which you indicate by even thinking about folding the river) why bet the turn? What are the purposes of these bets? If you think about it you should be able to see where you are going wrong.

When you bet the river you have more than half your stack in the pot, once that happens you cannot fold such a strong hand. So once you bet you must call the river, but checking the turn would be fine too. (As would checking the flop)

[cardshark202]

Flop bet is fine, I call the minraise, and check back the turn and then see what he does on the river before deciding. If he bets I would call, if he overbets I would fold. If he checks I would bet.

[tiago]

Yeah you have to call river. I would also flat his flop riase,. I 'd bet the turn for value aswell, I wouldn't want to play a small pot in this situation with that board despite his weird min raise on flop, I'd say he very rarely min raises a 4 there and more than likely a bad "see where I am bet" with a mid pair or a worse King.

[AndyFatBastard]

Flop bet is fine, I call the minraise, and check back the turn and then see what he does on the river before deciding. If he bets I would call, if he overbets I would fold. If he checks I would bet.

This!

[LTL]

Think about what you are doing. Firstly, why bet the flop? Secondly, if you want to play a small pot (which you indicate by even thinking about folding the river) why bet the turn? What are the purposes of these bets? If you think about it you should be able to see where you are going wrong.

When you bet the river you have more than half your stack in the pot, once that happens you cannot fold such a strong hand. So once you bet you must call the river, but checking the turn would be fine too. (As would checking the flop)

Thanks for the reply.

I bet the flop because I feel its a fairly standard cbet and if im only including air and monsters in my cbetting range I feel this is fairly exploitable, so i like to cbet a large percentage of my range in position.

When i call the min raise on that flop, my plan is to reaccess the turn, and when villian checks i misread this as either a check give up in which i don't particulary want to give a free card (although there is very few horrible turns so this is wrong of me) or i misinterpreted his check as pot control with a worse hand, like middle pairs and worse kings which i feel many villians check call with. I definitly think the best line here is to check the turn, both giving the villian another chance to bluff the river or control pot size on the river if villian has a bigger hand. If I check the turn and villian checks the river i do definitly value bet.

The problem is with the villian taking such a strange line here, his river shove at this level is so rarely a bluff and nearly always a monster. This is where I feel i continuesly play these spots badly as although i'v already invested over half my stack before the river, once villian shoves im so rarely ahead that I don't always think its a snap but i end up calling it off everytime. But of course your right in saying that betting the turn and folding the river is bad. Its just a spot 20-40 bb's deep that I continuesly take the wrong line.

Villian had K4 btw.

[Sledgejammer]

Flop bet is fine, I call the minraise, and check back the turn and then see what he does on the river before deciding. If he bets I would call, if he overbets I would fold. If he checks I would bet.

Really can't say more than this. Flop is 100% a bet.