Queens facing 3 bet BVB, 45 Man SNG

Game type: 45 man SNG
Your image: You have folded to several raises and re-raises
Stage of tourney: Final table of a 45 person tournament
Avg stack: 23,000
Misc notes: Opponent has been very aggressive preflop
Your hand: Q♦Q♣

The Setup: You’ve reached the final table of a 45 man sit and go.

The BB has been very aggressive, raising most pots he enters and consistently raising you when you limp in the SB. On a couple of occasions, you have raised preflop and he has re-raised you, and you have folded. With this in mind, you decide to act weak when the table folds to you and raise to 1500 (barely over the minimum) from the SB.

True to form, the BB raises you, making it 4500 to go. What’s your play?

Loading ...

8 COMMENTS (Jump to comment form)

Anonymous

Why isn’t fold listed as an option?

[Reply]

John Kugelman

Cause it’s not an option.

“With this in mind, you decide to act weak when the table folds to you and raise to 1500 (barely over the minimum) from the SB.”

Ew. Limp or raise normal. I don’t like revealing information with my bet size.

[Reply]

Waste_Of_Paint Reply:
January 10th, 2011 at 8:04 am

To be honest I don’t think it’s really an odd raise size. It’s not just over minimum, it’s 2.5x. I tend to raise 2.5x as standard when blinds are at this level.

Having said that if hero in this situation has been making it 3x every time then I agree, why would we set off alarm bells by breaking from the norm. But it seems to have had the desired effect, so I’m coming back over the top. I don’t like the idea of playing a flop with an overcard OOP against an agg opponent with awkward stack sizes, especially as he has the only stack that can eliminate us and we’re sitting 2/4.

Get it all in there. I’m happy to take down a nice pot if he folds, if he calls with an underpair or Ax then grand. No need to get tricky here.

[Reply]

Pirate21

Have to raise here. I don’t think we’re fooling anyone if we flat call here given the history. I see two options – either shove now or raise to ~$10K and ship it on any flop if V calls.

[Reply]

Rowdy

Well 1500 looks a standard size raise to me anyway.

As for the question: shove!! I’ve long since learned about messing around with QQ. That K or A comes on the flop alot and here vs this villian it’s going to be a nightmare if it happens. On top of that, you pick up alot of chips if he folds anyway, and given the price he’s got he may well call anyway. Infact the shove may get you more vbaue than the call – even if it comes unders on the flop we may only get a C-bet out of him.

[Reply]

Major Dude Reply:
January 10th, 2011 at 10:35 am

Right-o on everything that’s immediately going on.

I also like the shove for meta-game reasons. Villain clearly realizes that he can be the table bully, and he is is exploiting that to the max. We want him to treat us with more respect. If we force a fold now, we’ve taken a fine step in that direction.

We’ve unfortunately got the worst seat at the table, and if we play too passively, we’re at risk of coming in third. Now is a great chance to take command of a hand.

[Reply]

This is an easy raise, and since we can’t do that without committing anyway, let’s just shove here and now. If we raise to 10k we’re giving the same info – let’s assume v is not an idiot – but also giving ourselves a better chance to lose the hand.

[Reply]

Aces n Eights

Given the way you played against V before (folding to his re-raises) either option is going to set off his alarm bell. So there is no point to just calling and giving V a free shot to out flop you or get away from the hand if the flop completely misses. Any 3-bet pretty much commits you anyway so get it all in now and let the V decide if its worth it to dance

[Reply]