Pocket Queens

[Insidestr8]

There are many ways to play any hand, but here are some thoughts on playing the ladies... pocket Queens that is.

I have seen some of our members play QQ very passively, and that is very risky. If you don't raise them pre-flop, you are opening the door for all sorts of hands to limp in. Aces, or Kings are likely to limp and so are little suited connectors. That leaves you open to danger after the flop if an A or K hits, and even a small connected flop leaves open many straight and flush draws. If you do a nice pre-flop raise you likely get rid of the smaller cards and likely weak Aces or Kings if you are playing with good players.

Your only real danger at that point should be someone calling with a smaller pocket pair, but the odds of them hitting trips are roughly 1 in 10 so I don't think you can worry about that too much. If you have preflopped raised and there is no A or K on the flop then you are looking pretty good. At that point I think the "conservative" and proper play is to bet strong enough to take the pot down at that point. If you did pfr (pre flop raise) then you should have built a reasonable pot at this stage which is worth taking down. If you just check your Queens at this point you are leaving the door open to someone catching the A or K on the turn or river, or filling in their straight or flush draw.

With pocket Queens I see the passive play as the high risk play where you will likely be calling all the way to the river and giving your opponent every opportunity to catch a hand that will beat you. Also since you have never bet or raised, you have not gathered any information at all about what type of hand your opponent may have.

Comments and thoughts are appreciated.

[Stumilty]

nice post str8. I agree entirely with your reasoning, but I would add what ive seen lately here.
If I raise say four or five times preflop with my ladies, i clear out a lot less players than I would expect. I have built a considerable pot that im gonna try and take down post flop barring that ace king flop
However, this is happening to me lately. I am raising, and perhaps telegraphing the fact that I have a good hand. So when a player calls with ten 9 or jack 9, even given the raise, when they flop two pair, you are entirely blindsided. Its not just here, a lot of people like suited connectors, or just connected cards and therefore, sometimes, given the players, a limp can be LESS devastating, then betting aggressively.

[Insidestr8]

Intersing Stu. Maybe this maybe brings up the topic of table image.

My problem at PBL is that I get laydowns with almost any of the raises that I make. If I do a 3 times pot raise I'm almost assured of walking away with the pot unless I'm really low stacked. Even with a minimum raise, I normally only get one caller and sometimes none at all. I feel that I am viewed as extremely tight by many of the players here so I find it hard to get a pot going when I hit QQ. Despite that I just refuse to limp with the ladies since I feel it is one of the worse moves you can make, unless you are trapping, but even then I don't like the odds.

So to add the table image angle to this thread, I also look at who is at my table and how I think they view me. I try to get a handle on that and then try to adjust my play accordingly.

[2eighty8]

Your only real danger at that point should be someone calling with a smaller pocket pair, but the odds of them hitting trips are roughly 1 in 10 so I don't think you can worry about that too much.

It's actually closer to 1 in 5 (20% favourite) preflop to win. That includes straights, flushes, trips as you said, full house, and four of a kind.

[Insidestr8]

I'm sure you're right 288. What I meant specifically is that I think the chances of hitting trips on the flop with a pocket pair is about 1 in 10. So its a good idea to bet your QQ strongly again on the flop (with no overcard on board) to eliminate people catching up and getting the flush or straight on the next two cards.