Queens cracked
Please tell me if I played this poorly.
1-2 NLH game, two hours after new table started nine handed. Buy in for maximum of $400, mostly card dead for the two hours. I did steal a few pots, mostly small. I am at 425 effective and pick up queen of hearts, queen of clubs on the big blind. Fold, fold, then LAG player (raising many pots preflop, got caught a few times with garbage) makes it $12 to go. Folds around to me, I make it $32. Villain calls. Flop is Ace of clubs, 3 of clubs, 9 of hearts. I bet $65, villain calls. Turn is Ace of diamonds. I bet $100, villain goes all in for $158 more. I tank and then call.
6 Replies
Larger preflop - 40-50.
Why the huge flop bet? You just fold out anything unpaired - probably including clubs - and probably most pairs as well. You chose a polar sizing with a middling strength hand.
Turn is interesting as you'd think most hands that called you on the flop would be an Ace, but now there are fewer of them. You've cooked your goose with your flop sizing, but I'd check now. As for the jam, yeah sometimes you beat 9Xcc, maybe occasional KXcc but mostly you're just up against Ax and boats
Yeh your flop sizing is a little large - I'm fine with going on the bigger side as I think your hand is a 1 street value play, but potting might be a little too much. The turn is a check - once he calls the flop he gets to the turn with Ax,33,99-JJ, some middling pairs,maybe some big clubs although there's not many combos esp since you have Qc. As played you bet and he jams - think we can eliminate all pocket pairs that aren't sets, so you're left with sets,Ax and I think big clubs either fold or just call the turn. I just don't see how you're ever good here - you are repping all the Ax yet he's still jamming on you.
1- bet more preflop. See if you can get away with what you might feel is a ridiculous amount. $50, $60... If he folds, no problem, QQ can be a little tricky out of position vs a lag deep stacked. If he calls, great, you see you can push a good hand and get called
2- with the ace on the flop, be less inclined to bet big postflop. If he has the ace you lose less and if he doesn't he won't have many hands he can call a big bet with. (Plus you have Qc which blocks some flush draws)
With the stack depth I don't like getting all in here. Maybe against some truly maniac opponents you can bet in a way that looks scared to induce a bluff, but you came out swinging and he didn't blink.
Hey OP, you’ll get better feedback if you give the hand history in this format:
https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/170/l...
I found putting hands in this format helped me understand what I did wrong before I posted it.
With QQ and an A on the flop, you have middle pair and just one street of value. So check fold the turn.
Raise bigger pre. I'd make it att least $50 from OOP.
Just check-cai the flop from OOP. If we want to bet, we should bet small, 1/2 pot or less in a SRP. But with two clubs on board and the Qc in our hand, I think we should mostly be checking, and playing our hand as a bluff catcher.
Just because V is loose doesn't mean he doesn't connect with the flop. He could have a lot of AX and 9X in his range, as well as club draws.
If I was V and flopped top pair with a weak ace, I'd be checking back a lot. He's probably not bluffing with air. If we check and he bets small, I might check raise. If he bets big, I probably just call, and fold if he barrels big on the turn.
It sucks to pick up a big PP, raise pre, and see an ace-high flop, but it happens a lot. It's critical to not get married to our hand.
Thank you for the feedback. BTW villain had 5, 6 of clubs and got his flush on the river.