Call or Fold?

I am dealer, I look down and see KK on the 4th or 5th hand of the game (4000 starting chips). Limp, limp, limp goes the betters. Not wanting the A3 limpers to suck out on me I raised to 200 (4x the big blind). 1-3 people called me, I forget.

The flop comes up 9 7 5 rainbow, the first to act bets 100, everyone folded to me, I raised to 500 (pot sized or so), the raiser called.

Turn comes up another 5, I'm worried a little bit. He just checks, which could mean he's slowplaying trips so I didn't want to get trapped and I checked also.

River comes up a 3. The other guy leads off with a 1500 chip bet. Was he slowplaying his trip 5's and now trying to capitalize? Or was he trying to push me off the pot hoping I'd be afraid he had 5's?

I called him and before I reveal what he had I wanted some people to guess if my call was a good call and what he might have had, I don't want to pollute the thinking. I think I covered all the possible hands in my head. To make it clear it was the 4th or 5th hand of the game and the player was an unknown. So was I, it was the 1st pot we both played.

Winnings

When is it time to build a bankroll? In the games since I started recording I've won several games. Before then I took 3rd once and lost a bunch of other games, I think I was even or maybe down 20-40? I can't remember, but I was just playing from the gut. The first game I recorded was before I studied the game at all, it was just after watching on TV a bazillion hours.

All the following are NL hold'em tourney games. I separated the more "professional" type ones from the home games. All the home game buyins were $20, losers game was $5, the tourneys were $30.

+60 - 1st in an 8 player home game.
+150 - 1st in a 13 player tournament.
-20 - 5th in an 8 player home game.
+10 - 4th in a 20 player home game.
+10 - 1st in a 3 player losers game (same evening).
-30 - 27th in a 43 player tournament.
-20 - 7th in a 18 player home game.
+125 - 3rd in a 32 player tournament.

Adding it up I'm +245 in tournaments (with $90 worth of buyins), and +40 in home games with $85 in buyins. The numbers may be skewed a bit due to a small sample size. But I think it shows what I believe anyway. In home games I'm a bit more relaxed, I'm not as aggressive because I just like to see cards and play with friends. I'm not out to eliminate them. I'm busy telling and listening to stories.

So now when do I stop using "spending" money for the buyins and when do I start to actually have a bankroll that I can draw from and add to? I can afford to lose the buyin typically, but not if I lose three or four times in a row, that's nearly $100 even if I'd still be up money long run. So it'd be nice to have a bankroll to smooth out the lumps. But then again by having a bankroll it seems like I'm taking the game more seriously and I've always enjoyed the recreational aspects of it more than winning money.

Dumb Call?

Okay, on to the second hand I'll second guess myself on all night long. I can't remember, but I think it was several hands after the previous post. Blinds were 2k/4k

I have about 45k in chips and was definitely the dominant chip leader of the evening at that point. 7 people where left and it paid out 6. Player #1 had just had A3 suited pay off and doubled up. He started off the betting by going all in for 14k. #2 went all in for his last 4k, and #3 on small blind called the 14k and had maybe 3k left in chips. I was already on big blind for 4k, and was looking at 10k more to call, it'd never be more than 13k more no matter what the flop came up with.

I look at my cards and it was K5, normally an automatic fold. Yet some ideas crossed my mind that maybe were wrong but I don’t know yet. There was 36k in the pot already, including 4k of my own. For only 10k more, I had a chance of eliminating 3 players and ending up with 2/3rds of all the chips in the tournament. #1 went all in with A3s and A5s twice now in this tourney when short stacked. Heads up I'd fold but I figured I was getting my moneys worth and ponies up the extra 10k.

Flop came up crap cards, check check between me and the guy with 3k left. Turn came up 5, I go all in, he folds. We turn over cards between the two all in players and me. #1 had AA, #2 had 77, and I had K5 with a 5 on the turn. No K or 5 came up on the river and I lost and #1 tripled up. So I lost and I'd rather have had the 10k back. But did I make the right move in calling? I wasn't favored to win but I think I got pot odds in calling.

Dumb Laydown?

Okay, what's your opinion of this play? It's either my dumbest lay down of the evening or the best thing I did.

Blinds are 1000/2000 with 7 people remaining in a game that pays out 6 places. About 4 of the players are seriously short stacked with less than 10k in chips, I had about 30k and was the chip leader, although by less than 5k with two of the other players. Lots of the short stacked guys had been playing Ace rag hands or pairs of 2's etc to try to get some magic going.

Cards are dealt, I look down at AJs and I acted first. I had 29500 in chips. I bet 9000 figuring all the short stacks would have to go all-in to call me which I was willing to gamble with. Either that or maybe some of the bigger chip leaders would call and I was willing to see a flop for 9k. Everyone folds until it comes to the big blind, who is also the 2nd place guy in chips. He looks at his card, considers for about 1 second and goes all in. It scared me that he didn't even think about it. We counted up the chips and he had raised me by 18500 and I had 20500 left in chips. I'd have 2000 left with a 2000 big blind the very next hand, so basically I was all in. I thought about it and I was a serious underdog to AQ, AK, JJ, QQ, KK, AA, and I was a slight underdog in a coin flip with any pocket pair 10 or less. I wasn’t willing to go out on the bubble by playing a coin flip so I folded the hand away and he took my 9k.