Daily Hand Quiz

There is a decent chance v has aa and h doesn’t have the odds to call for setmining. It sucks but I fold here. At a lower level where I normally play this seems to be aa about a third of the time so I might shove but at this level I am more inclined to give v the benefit of the doubt.

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I’m only a low stakes player but I’d ship QQ preflop for 50BB all day.

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This isn’t a great spot to be in so early in a tournament but I am not folding QQ here. Limp-raising is often AA but more so from early position than middle position in my experience – I am not so sure many players will limp AA on the hijack so early on. At this level of buyin, it seems a bit donkish to get so out of line.

Let’s consider other possibilities. Our raise could just look like we are attacking a pot that no-one has shown an interest in. We could be doing this with a decent starting hand that we don’t want to play out of position in a multiway limped pot – AJ, 88, KQ etc – hands that suddenly look very unattractive in the face of heat. Our ‘solid’ image doesn’t give away a lot, but I am guessing that indicates that we are willing to contest pots, and this could very easily be a tricky opponent playing back at us.

I could easily imagine an opponent doing this with a smaller pair than ours, or high cards, even suited connectors. They know that the button and small blind are going to fold to the 4bet, so all they need is for the move to force us out of the pot and they’ve picked up an extra seven big blinds. If we call them, they have position on the flop.

I think this is one of the situations where we need to be willing to play a flop out of position rather than getting it all in now with a pair of queens. Call the 450 and analyse a flop.

By calling there will be 1500 in the middle and we will have 2130. Not ideal, but we will have enough to make a lead bet that will look like we mean business but that we can genuinely get away from if villain comes over the top. Stop and go could be pretty effective here in finding out where we stand without going broke. It will look as though we want to get the chips into the middle, and as we have the power to cripple our opponent with our stack I think even the most aggressive of players would need to goods to shove back at us so early on.

Call and play a flop. Put the pressure back on, bet most flops (although if we spike the Q I may be tempted to check to see if villain will hang himself). There’s no reason yet to let go of the third best starting hand in the face of aggression. Let’s play some poker.

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Shove without much thought. I’ll spike a queen if I need to but I’m not folding. /end of analysis

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Pirate21 Reply:
November 1st, 2010 at 8:26 am

Borrowing from you last week….
I’m not good enough to fold this hand.

Only behind two possible hands and I can see many that we’re ahead of making this play. I’ll shove it all day and be ahead at least 2/3 of the time.

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_CityBorn_ Reply:
November 1st, 2010 at 10:14 am

actually, that was me, and despite playing steadily since last week, i havent improved enough yet to fold this this week either.

only question is stop n go vs shove. im probably shoving. problem with stop n go is we let him get away if he misses ak but get our chips in if he hits. or if we say we might slow down if overs hit, we’re becoming vulnerable to bluffs. if we think we’re ahead, might as well ship it now i think. im a little undecided on this, but thats how im leaning…

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Pirate21 Reply:
November 1st, 2010 at 6:15 pm

my bad… but at least I get partial credit for remembering the line, right?

Easy ship. V could be thinking we are trying to take the limps and be doing this with almost any pair or broadway cards. Get it in and be happy about it.

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I wouldn’t put it past a complete dolt in a lower level buyin tourny to do something sneaky/weird like limp with Aces or Kings in late position. But I’d think a player in a $150 tourny would be a little smarter than that. If villain was being ultra risky/tricky with the Aces or Kings than bravo, well played, but I’m really leaning towards shipping over the top. If we call and see a flop we still have a playable stack if we need to get away – but we’ll really have no idea where we stand if an Ace or a King hits. Tough decision, thats why I think the preflop ship (out of position) makes a little more sense.

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I think AA is open min-raising. Probably min 3-betting as well to induce a 4-bet. KK would open-raise large majority of the time. Not happy about getting to it this early, but I RAI beating most of the V range.

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