Revenge of the Queens

[zebranky]

once again, my girls come through.
All comments welcome.

$2/$3 NLHE, $100 buy in. I'm MP with 220, playing fairly tight but I've had to show off some bad winners (like 67s for two pair the hand before). LP is the monster with over 1500, and has been a bully most of the time I've been at the table. The good news is he's been there over 20 hours, and is obviously off his game by now. SB is a TAG who's seen very little play (2 hands in the last 30 or so), with around 300.

deal comes [Qh][Qd]
the girls are in da house!
I bet/raise to 12, LP calls, SB raises to 30. I call, LP calls.

$93 in the pot
flop [Qc][Kc][8h] - trips for me.
SB checks, I bet 60 (to kill the flush draws, hopefully)
LP raises exactly my remaining stack of around 130, (saying "I'm going to put you all-in"), and SB suprises him by calling. It took a bit of debate, but I call also - I can't get away from this one, especially with these odds.

$663 or so in the pot
turn [8s], SB checks, LP checks.
River [2s], both check.

ending hands - Queens full 8's for me
SB - two pair, Kings over Queens
LP - pair of Kings (Ace kicker)


anyone care to wade in and decide who made the mistakes here?

 

[dbitel]

SB's reraise preflop is way too small. Got to make it like $40 at least. I don't know if he was thinking on this level or if he just thought KQ was a good hand, but this is a pretty good spot for a squeeze play. He should have a pretty tight image. You'll prob be folding a lot of your range (I presume you're gonna have a reasonably wide opening range), and its likely that LP has a weak hand as a bully will normally reraise his big hands preflop.

On the flop, checking is probably slightly better than betting out. In reraised pots, you cant worry too too much about the FD, esp as the K and Q of that suit is on the flop. And given that bully will bet a lot of hands, and that you will rarely have a worse hand that you are willing to get all in with on the flop, checking looks good.

After your bet and LP's all in, he's in a VERY tricky spot. He knows that you know he is a tight player, and he knows you probably put him on a AK/TT+ kind of range preflop. Therefore, for you to be betting the flop, you're repping a pretty good hand. I don't think he can worry about LP too much however, as he's a bully and off his game. A fold is tough to make here, but is probably the right move here. All he beats is AK and a bluff, and depending on how good you are, you shld rly never be showing up with AK here, and it would be a pretty sick spot for you to bluff.

on the turn/river, he only has about 80 left....he really need to go all in vs LP, who isnt folding and can have quite a few worse hands.

OK, onto your play. I think this is the easiest to analyse. Your preflop raise is good, and I dont think you can really 4bet this hand, due to being rr by a tight player, so your call of the 3bet is good too.

On the flop, you could try to be tricky and check the flop, induce the bully to bet and maybe trap some of SB's dead money is there, but that might be a bit too much FPS for this spot/flop, as theres a few turn cards that could stop others putting money in. So I think your bet is good and obv the call of the AI is standard. Theres no way you're folding midset there.

The only mistake you made in the hand IMO, is when you say that LP has a pair of kings ace kicker, when he clearly has 2 pair, kings over 8s !!!

Lastly, the LP. Firstly, he should really be reraising AK the 1st time it gets to him. He has a reputation as a bully and a big hand, he should be using that to his advantage by value raising. When it gets back to him, I don't like his call. Sure, if he knows that you have QQ and SB has KQ, its an easy call/push. but he has to put both of you on pretty big hands, so as nitty as it seems, I think when it gets back to him, folding is best (NOTE: a lot of this analysis is based on SB being very tight. Now I don't know how tight "very tight" is for a live game. But online, I'd probably fold AK to a "very tight" player's 1st raise, preflop, let alone a reraise.)

on the flop, after SB checks and you go AI, LP should be folding (which is why he shld fold preflop), but its a fold i'd never expect him to make. he has to really put you on a range of AK/AA/KK/QQ/88 and maybe KQ and combo draws SOME times (I also expect you will 4et AA/KK a lot). But he's in bad shape vs that range.

After he puts you AI on the flop, his turn and river checks are suprisingly good

 

[zebranky]

the other guy...

ooops - I did miss the fact that the LP did have 2 pair, A kicker. Minor point he's still 3rd best), but thanks for catching me.

as for the SB - I talked to him about the hand, and he though he was good on the flop, willing to check-raise as he knew one of us would bet it. He couldn't get away from his hand when the LP raised, so he called, even though it left him very little chips. Similarly, the 2nd 8 on the turn scared him off putting his chips in (because he could easily believe the LP would re-raise with two pair K8 or Q8), and I assume LP didn't like it either. I really don't think our bully expected any calls - two of them shut him down completely. Thankfully, I got another great hand against him about an hour later, and sucked off another 300 or so before he folded the river...

I think you may be right that I could have checked the flop, because the AK is pretty much guaranteed to bet with two checks in front of him. I always bet here to push out any FDs, but you're right I shouldn't be too worried - KQ already out, so the best was a PF AJ - not a likely caller for the re-raise. ah, the benefits of hindsight...