Do we raise here with qq absent of any read? Or do we call and take a flop hoping he bets out again and we get more value? I believe the raise is right about 90% of the time but let me know.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t150 (8 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

MP1 (t4875)
MP2 (t5230)
CO (t1260)
Hero (t2945)
SB (t1460)
BB (t2515)
UTG (t3560)
UTG+1 (t2830)

Preflop: Hero is Button with Q, Q.
3 folds, MP2 raises to t600, 1 fold, Hero raises to t1500, 2 folds, MP2 folds.

Final Pot: t2325

i like to just call with QQ on the button, and keep the pot small in position.

Yuck.

QQ is a monster in my book, and I'm very happy to make the pot huge.

You know, they say, keep the pot small OUT of position, not in position...

im the type of player that likes to see alot of flops, and with hand like QQ i wait till the flop to get a bunch of money in. but maybe isap

With a very strong hand like QQ, while it is a top hand, it's very unlikely to improve after the flop.. so, it's often best to extract maximum value pre-flop.

The idea of 'seeing lots of flops' is more for getting in cheaply with low pairs and suited connectors/one-gappers etc, or when you feel you have a strong edge post-flop against certain players.

maybe iev been burned with hands like QQ too often, and like to see J high flops and have somebody get married to their AJ and what not. But i understand what you are saying.

I think absent of a read you have to raise pre-flop. If you have no read, you can play your QQ to J high board as if villain has AJ when they really have KK or AA.

I would be more willing to accept a call on the button only occassionally when you have a known opponent and you are trying to change things up a bit to take advantage of either your or their image.

depends on the player, but with no-read here I go ahead and make the raise a large majority of the time QQ is almost always best PF so building a substantial pot is not bad.

What's the structure? That info MAY come into play. Probably not though.

I raise this pretty close to 100% of the time. While it would be nice to see a J high flop and get paid off post-flop, your hand is usually best right now, so get some value. If I flat call, and the flop comes with overs, I have to fold to a continuation bet because I don't know where I'm at.

That 3bet is way too small. Since you cannot really make a legitimate raise without moving in I go ahead and shove.

Calling is a mistake. The only time I call is if 1) I am in the BB so there's no danger of the blinds getting a cheap look, and 2) if villain's an aggrodonk who always c/bets and I plan to c/r ai every flop. You are not deep enough to get fancy with big pairs. Allow your opponent the opportunity to make a preflop mistake and get your money in as a huge favorite.

Based on the stack sizes vs. the blinds a re-raise is fine. I also don't mind smooth calling in position.

It depends on the player. If you think he's weak but will c-bet most flops, then flat call? If you think he'll put in before the flop marginally then re-raise... etc.

neither play is horrible, jsut depends, those stacks i tend to re-pop

and.....

thank god someone finally said shove. shove please.

This is a terrible, terrible spot for a smooth call IMO. We have an M of 13ish...meaning we're not particularly deep, especially since antes are kicking in soon. Do we want to call off 20% of our stack here and then fold to a single bet when an ace flops???

You have to raise here, and I think a small raise to 1500ish looks stronger than a push. So push.

I agree, 1500 screams "huge hand" and the only thing calling or coming over the top is a hand that has you beat, push and that AJ/AQ/underpair may call. that being said, there's nothing wrong with not seeing a flop with that hand.

Ok, I think this is a small problem I have. When should someone be shoving instead of just raising? I agree with the strategy of raising looks stronger than a shove, but is that the only reason to shove?

Shoving *is* raising but doing so sensibly. A minraise accomplishes very little except advertise that we want a call. We do not have enough chips to put in a normal sized raise and be left with anything resembling a stack afterward, so we should just move in.

You want to shove here because a smaller raise clearly commits your entire stack. If you raise it up to half your stack, there's like a 99.9% chance you're calling the other half of your stack (from your opponent's perspective). So if you raise less than all-in it looks like you want action IMO. You have a very strong hand, so you want it to look like you don't want action.

Also if you just raise half your stack, you're basically letting your opponent play for your entire stack, but it only costs him half. If he has AQ or AJ here he can just call the raise if he wants to, and fold if he misses the flop. I guess if he calls you and the flop comes AK4 and he pushes you have to fold, but if he has any sense and decides to call you, he should check any flop. You have to push so if he hit it he'll call. In other words, it only costs him 900 (your raise) to try to hit the flop, and he knows that if he does hit it he'll get your other 1500.