Based on my read, I should've probably just called the EP raise from the button with Queens in this spot, but I figured he could possibly be raising with AK or Jacks and I wanted to take control of the hand.

When he came back over the top right away, with him being a loose/passive/passive player, I felt I had to respect that, even short handed. Main reason I folded was his preflop raise % .

Villian: 40.5/1.5/1.9 --270 hands

Any thoughts:



PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (6 handed) converter

Hero ($101.20)
SB ($96.90)
BB ($90.35)
UTG ($85.70)
MP ($98.50)
CO ($74.20)

Preflop: Hero is Button with [Qh], [Qs].
1 fold, CO folds, Hero folds.

Final Pot: $57.50

honestly, and i'm not being results oriented, i try to stay away from reraising queens preflop unless i have a specific reason to. here, i think this is a very clear call instead of a reraise:

1. deep stacks. with deep stacks, position becomes huge, as does postflop play. i think it's much safer to cheaply let your queens go on bad flops and to exploit good flops well with position and implied odds.

2. his preflop raise percentage is clearly very low. he COULD be raising with AK, that means half his raising hands (combinations-wise) are AK, the other are AA/KK, so on safe flops, you can put him to the test.

on the other hand, against such a passive opponent, reraising isn't terrible because you can easily drop your hand if he reraises. still, by just calling, you leave yourself an out (hitting a set), but by reraising and then folding to a reraise, you prevent that out.

aseem

Even shorthanded? I find that very odd. I can understand that feeling at a full ring.

I would be more so inclined to reraise, unless with a specific read.

yeah, it's just my style maybe. honestly, even shorthanded, there are times to just cold-call with KK instead of of reraise.

read the mid- and high-stakes PL/NL HE forum on 2+2 sometime, it's a goldmine.

aseem

I like the initial re-raise to $13 which helps define your hand. However, when he comes over the top of you I think it's a good fold. You see he doesn't raise much pre-flop, which means when he re-raised you he probably had one of three hands - AA, KK, or AK. The first two hands have you crushed and you are just a slight favorite if he has AK. Maybe he does have something like JJ, but I still think the more prudent play is a fold.

Part of being successful at NL hold em is being able to lay down hands, sometimes they are the winning hands.

Nice fold

Heinekens' say push all-in! 8)

:twisted:

i like the raise and the fold is good.

it's obvious he has a hand like KK or AA, if he has AK..meh..he'll prob go broke soon anyways.

short handed I re/raise this...long handed...meh...i dunno...comes down to reads and my position.

- Jordan

This reminds me of two days ago when I was playing live, and I'll post this hand here.

QQ in the small blind, five handed. 1/2 no limit, full of donks ofcourse, a couple key players, including second big stack at this table, but they weren't in this hand.

UTG+1 limps, folds, button raises to 12 and says something witty to me, I can't remember exactly what, but it was something that scared me into thinking he had a big hand, said it with such confidence. I had been owning the table up to this point, up 1100 on a 100 buy in no limit table (not joking, I love live no limit) and I was drunk as hell because that's why I go to the casino, so anyway, I get scared into just calling (horrible strategy considering villian), then the utg+1 donkey goes all in for 110 total and button thinks and thinks and ends up folding.

Now, this isn't really even a strategy question, because I had seen utg+1 make some really dumb moves, when people put in raises preflop he liked to just get all his money in. I took longer than I needed to call, and he did actually end up having a hand this time, AK. King rolled off on the flop, he comments, I hope you don't get a queen, at which point I smiled, because in my drunkeness I believe in superstitions, therefore believing he jinxed himself and sure enough the queen spikes the turn and I take down the pot.

This also illustrates the difference between live and online. Online I would never get my money all in preflop with queens at a full table, esp to a limp reraise all in by the utg+1. But live, they play horribly, probably because it takes so long to get a number of hands in, and they get impatient and its easier to target donkeys live, imo. He was one of them.

Had I known that he had AK would I still have called with Queens, even though I knew he didn't play well. Ofcourse. This is where I hate a lot of comments when people say, oh, I'm not going to push this small edge against him because I'm so much better and will get my money in when i'm a 70% favorite or better. That's just silly. If you have an edge, get your money in there. If he's 45% and catches up, well, you can rebuy and push your bigger edges still.

Whew, long post

advising people not to reraise with QQ in position shorthanded is weak.

if you limit your preflop reraises to AA and KK, you will not make nearly as much money with these hands. NL is a game of position and aggression. exploit that. if someone open raises and you have any hand that you were planning on raising with yourself, it's usually advisable to reraise. you build bigger pots and have greater fold equity on your flop continuation bets. also, playing deep stacked, it makes it much easier to stack an opponent when you flop a set, straight or big two pair if you've inflated the pot preflop.

if you commonly reraise with your strong hands preflop, people will be wary of raising with their marginal holdings like 77, 98s or AJ for fear of you coming over the top and it will allow you to see a lot of cheap flops when they simply limp to you.

opening up my reraising standards preflop led to an immediate increase in my winrate, and really, it's just more fun to push more chips in the pot.

of course, in the hand you mentioned, without a strong read this is an instamuck.