blonde poker forum

been thinking a lot about this over the past 24 hours, mainly because of a hand I played yesterday afternoon in a freezout tournament....

usual situation midway thru a MTT (live), blinds 200/400. I find pocket queens UTG, I raise to 1600. Small blind thinks for a while, goes all in (about 5000 chips I have about 4000 left). I call, he turns over AK, and rivers a king to reduce me to 400, and sent packing next hand in the BB.

maybe guilty of trying to overanalyze this, because I hear often "these two hands play themselves", but I dont necessarily accept that. Here is a few random thoughts about it

1. I am UTG - maybe I should just call and wait for agression from a later position. If the flop comes with no A or K, then I bet hard to push him off the hand.

2. Fold to his allin raise? I cannot really suggest this as an option for pocket queens.

3. Accept that these two hands are a road accident, and no-one is getting away from it ? Part of me thinks his reraise all in is a bit fishy.  He is getting his chips in when (slightly) behind. He is gambling his tournament life on a coin flip, because he must know that I have a pair of some description. His all in suggests to me "I dont have the skill to play this hand, so I am just going to dump all my chips in the middle, and take the skill out of it."


go on, give me your opinions....

Firstly you HAVE to raise UNLESS it is a particularly aggressive table, you just can't allow rag aces etc. to limp and force you off the flop.
After the raise it really is a road accident hand, you can fold but it depends how aggressive you yourself are, personally it's an auto call if i run into AA or KK then tough, that's poker!
As for his allin, well i like that too, he really has to be aggressive here because he wants all 5 cards to draw to, once he decides to play the hand it's an auto allin (for me). You would also pass if you were stealing or had a mid pair.
At the end of the day we all know you only win comps by getting 'em in in these situations and being the fortunate one to hit/dodge.

would you make the same move with 55?

Also being the SB he will be out of position for the rest of the hand if he just calls - moving all in negates that disadvantage.

Would i?, only if i can afford a hit, never if it cripples me.

You have to raise with QQ, if no one raises behind you you'll be struggling post flop on any flop with an overcard

AK re-raising there? no problem...its main value is as a "raising equity" hand...he hopes you fold but he has every chance to hit if you call

QQ to an all in, well he's not going to push all in with AA or KK....well most aren't anyway, so auto call...you are going to be ahead most of the time


that apart, as we all know win these coin flips and you set yourself up for the money....

The only question is why make it 1600 with QQ?!?!?!?!

Do you not want action with the 3rd best hand?

I agree, these pocket pairs dont come around that often..... ACTION ACTION ACTION!!!!