May 17, 2012

Daily Hand Quiz

Today’s quiz courtesy of: Don’t play poker at Ultimate Bet without signing up for Ultimate Bet rakeback.

Game type: WSOP Main Event Satellite, online
Stage of tourney: About a third of the field remains
Avg stack: 9,000
Your image: TAG
Opponent’s image: Just moved to your table
Your hand: Q♣Q♠

This hand is based on actual game play from the $500+35 Full Tilt 100 seats Guaranteed WSOP satellite on Sunday 6/18/07.

The setup: You’ve been playing solid poker but you’ve fallen behind average in this WSOP satellite. There are 1100 people still in, and the top 139 get seats.

Your opponent just got moved to the table, and you’re not familiar with them. You get queens UTG and you raise it up to 760. The player to your left insta-raises all in.

The table folds back to you. What’s your play?

Discuss your thoughts on this quiz in our forums – Queens facing a preflop raise, WSOP satellite, or in the comments below.


12 COMMENTS  (Jump to comment form)

shaymalus


I initially voted call.

But on second thoughts, to make this move after an UTG raise requires JJ-AA, or AK. JJ might just call sometimes, so thats less likely.

AK is a race for you, and AA KK have you crushed.

A tough fold but probably correct

[Reply]

John B.


This massive over-bet reeks of an Ax wanting to take the pot down without contest, so I’m calling. If his re-raise was more reasonable, I’d probably think about folding.

[Reply]

Rallenkov


You put the exact reason why I would call Shay.
He made a move knowing that you have to put him on a pretty strong Hand to make the call.
The over bet screams Iam weak dont call me as well.
We are only in very bad shape if he holds KK-AA.
If I had more information on the player I might fold but with what I have Iam willing to call.

[Reply]

Cristiano


As John stated the massive overbets reeks Ax and indeed I believe he is weak; still i folded.
I have enought chips to wait for a better situation and letting this one go will not be that bad. Suppose I either had 18K or 2K I would call. Suppose he had 2-3K I would call; But by paying here I would be risking all my chips against a possible KK, AA or even AK; and then
there is always another hand.

[Reply]

Joe B


The tough part about this situation is that it’s personal choice – I see this a lot at casino games, at a new game or a new player coming in will try to start aggressive and bully people around from the get-go. What you need is information – about how he plays, or whether he would typically respect an UTG raise or not. The safe assumption is that most players would and you’d be correct to fold – a lot of players will put you on hands that they themselves would hold in those positions, so a good question to ask is what would he raise with in UTG and subsequently what can he expect to beat you with holding that hand in UTG?
Your raise was only about 2.5x the big blind, not a monster but representing enough strength to kill off the flushes and secret monster hands – so HE might be detecting weakness in you and be putting you on A-J or A-Q.
He doesn’t hold AA because with that he’d play slower and give you more control in the knowledge that he had you beat for sure already.
His hand holds either just one ace or a pocket pair from jacks through kings (not likely the queens though lol)
If he’s crazy he might hold tens, but considering the point in the tournament a crazy like that would have been eliminated by now.
I’m going with A-Q in his hand (although kings are very possible). I would call.

[Reply]

Jeremy Fisher


I’m not going to get bullied around by the new guy at the table, who is almost certainly taking advantage of his unknown image here.
HUGE range for this move here. I’m calling without any regret.

[Reply]

Roger L


I call.
My M is 9, not a place I like being, I have a long way to go in the tournament and there are big stacks out there and I am under average. I don’t know the players but they don’t know me either.

I look at the situation from my point of view and my opponents point of view as follows:

Me, I see this huge raise as “I don’t want action”, intimidation. I also see that he is small stack and needs to grow.

In his shoes what am I thinking? If I have AA or KK, I definitely want some action, an all-in bet after a 2.5BB raise will probably even make the raiser go away (and it did). But if I have Ax, QQ, JJ, or TT, getting the $1k that’s on the table is good enough for my small stack and I’d rather have no action. An all-in bet might just do that (and it did), the odds that someone else has a big pair, AA, KK, QQ are small.

Card-wise I have QQ and a chance to double up. I’m only afraid of AA, KK which I don’t think he has and for the rest, I’m even or slightly ahead.

Both of my analyses tell me I should call. I take my chance, I understand the risk but willing to take it. The huge raise is what drives me.

[Reply]

Ally


Easy fold. You’re not playing to win; you are playing for 139th place.

By shoving here, it apperas that he does not want action, but I actually think that he will not mind a call here. He has one of three hands–AK/AA/KK. AK will shove to make sure he’s going to see all five cards. AA/KK can shove knowing that it may look weak and the fact that UTG most likely has a very good hand as well means that he’s going to have a hand that he might be willing to call with.

If he’s just making a move here, it’s a very ballsy spot. He’s got the whole table behind him and a tight UTG raiser (he may not know you’re tight, but any UTG raise should respected unless you have a reason to doubt them). I just don’t see him shoving JJ or worse or A-rag often enough to make up for all the times that you’re crushed here.

[Reply]

Annette N


I think if you are going to fold QQ here with 1,100 people still to get through you might as well just sit out! The key here is you are playing for one of the 139 seats and to get there you are going to have to increase your stack substantially and make some uncomfortable calls and bets along the way. You don’t want to make stupid all-in calls, but with his significant overbet you have to go with the most likely cause…AK or AQ or JJ. Yes he could have AA or KK, but again the most likely play with those cards is a raise of a good amount because you want action. If he has AA or KK I say good play and unless I suck out I will lose. But when you look at the range of hands an online player could have, it isn’t just AA, KK or AK…I think it is down to AJ and pairs from 10′s on up (or at least this has been my experience, not to mention the LAG bluff with J-10 suited or something just as crazy). While there might be better opportunities for you down the road, you may not last long enough to get another hand quite as good and end up putting your chips in with a worse hand. I say with 1,100 people still to get through and a ton of time still to play you will have to risk your chips to stay alive and this is a pretty good spot to do so. If you lose you have your Sunday to enjoy!

[Reply]

Nick


Instacall – only two hands have you crushed and good luck to him if he has them (but he wouldn’t make that play with them)

[Reply]

Thomas Fradd


Man what a tough decision! I did vote fold after considerable thought, main reason is you have a good stack size over 20 BB, and you possibly COULD wait for a better spot. Surely this player behind wouldnt make that move with eg A-10s or JJ. I think the most likely holdings IMO would be KK or AK maybe AKs. You would never suspect aces, but kings is what would scare me, many players would make this play in fear of an ace hitting the board. I totally agree with Ally’s comment above, you are playing for 139th place or better, not to win, therefore surivial is everything ! How on earth could this player make this move unless he had the goods (KK Or AA) or even AK. If you did put your opponent on AK surely in that coinflip scenario you would FOLD your QQ.

[Reply]

Savage Johnson


i was in this exact situation a week ago (except it was in the first hand against a localy well known experienced player). every one had him on KK. but when i folded and showed and asked if i had shown too much respect for his hand he showed pocket jacks and said “i just dont like racing with jacks, and if i got called then theres no shame in going out with them”.

in retrospect if he was going to make a raise with AA or KK he would have made a value bet, not a scare bet.

call.

[Reply]

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