Villain is 32/3/1.6 after 30 hands or so. We tangled in two hands, one of which he db and folded to my raise. Another one, when we were in the blinds, he just called my c-bet with a pair of queens on a two flush board. He checked through the turn and called my river bluff. Aside from that, don't really know much about the villain.

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $1 BB (6 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

BB ($98.50)
UTG ($55.75)
MP ($18)
Hero ($101.55)
Button ($123.60)
SB ($109.45)

Preflop: Hero is CO with Q, Q.
2 folds, Hero raises to $4, Button calls $4, 2 folds.

Flop: ($9.50) T, J, 9 (2 players)
Hero bets $7, Button raises to $14, Hero...

I think you call here and see what develops on the turn. You've got the open ender to go with your queens. He could be putting you on AK or AQ and be raising with AJ or KJ. There's also a chance he has KQ or JT, or AQh and is trying to build the pot. With the pot where it's at, I say you call to get more information and if it all comes up blanks you may end up having to call him down. In other words, I'm not a fan of over aggression in this situation.

My guess is that he had AJ (worst case scenario = KQh, which is also a possibility)

Difficult hand (i'll be interested to read others comments)

he could easily be min raising hoping you check the turn and give him a free card on the draw. Tons of draws out there and yours isn't horrible either.

I may call here and if a scare card doesnt come, bet big into him and see what happens.

Then again, I kinda stink, but I think checking the turn would be weak and I think repopping isn't great here because if his draw is big enough, he's gonna jam to make sure he sees two cards.

Again, I know nothing, but that's what I'd do.

and in my first scenario, if the scare card doesn't come, I bet and he raises me again, maybe it's time to dump it.

reraise to 35 and pitch to a push. too many turn cards that are going to complicate our decision even more (a Qh being the worst). not to mention, if he has a big draw that he would push on the flop with, we probably aren't a favorite anyway.

i suppose one could make an argument for flat calling and donking a non-heart turn for ~25. problem is, if villain doesn't give us credit on the flop and reraises, he'll do the same on the turn. so we lose about the same amount of $ if we call and donk as we do when we reraise the flop, assuming we are behind or if villain gives us no credit. we do get a peek at the turn card by just calling, but even if we improve, we still don't necessarily win (the worst case of the best case being that we chop by getting a K on the turn), whereas if we're ahead, we let villain outdraw for cheap.

EDIT -- To clarify, calling and improving on the turn, but still not necessarily being ahead is particularly bad. Right now, we have an opportunity to not go broke while also taking down the pot. Back into the wrong turn card and there's a decent chance we get stacked.

call & re evaluate turn...


i hate playing OOP...



& i hate min raises...


hope you didn't hit the 8 only to get it all in & see he had K Q haha

Crappy spot, I call and check the turn to him, you're OOP with a hand that has showdown value but you aren't comfortable with it, you want to get to showdown as cheaply as possible.

The turn card and Villain's bet play a large role in what we do next.

why would you stick in 40% of your stack and fold to a push? OP is only in terrible shape against exactly KQ. Anything else we either already have the best hand or are drawing live with 2 cards to come.

I don't mind a 3 bet since he could be raising with alot of drawing hands, but I don't think you can fold to a push here. You'd be getting almost 2.5:1 on your money at this point.

to be exact, the odds we'd be getting would require 30% equity. Against a LAG I would insta-call this, but against this villain, I don't think so.

here are some ranges from pokerstove

This range he only pushes with the nuts, a set, bottom & middle str8, and a mega-draw like AKh or AQh:
equity win tie hands
Hand 0: 23.769% 19.33% 04.44% { QcQd }
Hand 1: 76.231% 71.80% 04.44% { TT-99, AhKh, AhQh, KQs, Q8s, 87s, KQo, Q8o, 87o }


This range he also pushes with a reasonable Qx str8 or flush draw:
equity win tie hands
Hand 0: 39.020% 31.16% 07.86% { QcQd }
Hand 1: 60.980% 53.12% 07.86% { TT-99, AhKh, AhQh, KQs, Q8s+, 87s, KQo, Q8o+, 87o }

(reasonable = villain with those PT stats is not calling a raise with garbage like Q6s)

This range adds in a few more draws, a bit less likely:
equity win tie hands
Hand 0: 39.718% 32.24% 07.48% { QcQd }
Hand 1: 60.282% 52.80% 07.48% { TT-99, AhKh, AhQh, AhTh, KQs, KhTh, Kh8h, Q8s+, 87s, KQo, Q8o+, 87o }

This range he also pushes with two pair:
equity win tie hands
Hand 0: 42.347% 36.92% 05.43% { QcQd }
Hand 1: 57.653% 52.23% 05.43% { TT-99, AhKh, AhQh, AhTh, KQs, KhTh, Kh8h, Q8s+, J9s+, T9s, 87s, KQo, Q8o+, J9o+, T9o, 87o }


I think several things push us into the conservative specturm
- villain's stats and the way he's played some of his hands - he's not really aggressive postflop
- a minraise followed by a push over a significant reraise tends to be the nuts more often than not
- even when our equity is better in the broader hand ranges, a decent # of times we are still at most chopping.

EDIT - made it neater

Yeah, villain's range crushes us, especially since he's so passive pf. I hated the way I played this hand... I ended up shoving, which was incredibly stupid. He instantly called and flipped over KQ for the straight. Live and learn, I guess.

Against a LAG, do you think we should call and wait for a blank turn? Or reraise the pot?

Well, I think against a LAG you'll probably end up pushing the flop anyway since he'll probably be doing more than minraising. At that point it wouldn't make sense to flat call because we'd probably be potsticking ourselves anyway.

Assuming the LAG minraises though.. If I had a good read that he'd keep firing on the turn with a draw instead of checking through, I'd call flop and CRAI on the turn. Otherwise I think it sort of depends more on your style and tolerance for variance. It's probably profitable to get it all in on the flop here against a LAG, but you're going to be playing a lot of huge pots with not that large of an equity edge. So it's perfectly understandable to call and donk turn as well, especially since against a LAG, I think we're probably less likely to hit a reverse implied odds turn card.

The villain is passive, yes, but his VPIP is also sitting above 30%. He's seeing the flop with a third of his hands, but plays quite passively. It sounds to me like he's a donk minraiser, and contrary to most replies, I *really* like the "reraise to 35, fold to a push" suggestion that nomad_monad suggested. If he just calls, I instantly put him on a draw and play the turn accordingly (check/fold a bad card, and push on a blank).