Perhaps my best hand ever (QQ OOP with a K on flop and turn)

I had been pretty aggressive postflop, and CO had started playing back at me.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.05 BB (7 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP1 ($7.71)
MP2 ($5.21)
CO ($4.56)
Button ($1.90)
SB ($5.73)
Hero (BB) ($14.19)
UTG ($6.33)

Preflop: Hero is BB with Q, Q
3 folds, CO calls $0.05, 2 folds, Hero raises to $0.20, CO calls $0.15

Flop: ($0.42) 4, 5, K (2 players)
Hero checks, CO checks

Turn: ($0.42) K (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $0.25, Hero raises to $0.75, CO raises to $1.80, Hero calls $1.05

River: ($4.02) 10 (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $2.56 (All-In), Hero calls $2.56

Total pot: $9.14 | Rake: $0.40

Results:
Hero had Q, Q (two pair, Kings and Queens).
CO had Q, 10 (two pair, Kings and tens).
Outcome: Hero won $8.74


When he checked behind on the flop, I was pretty sure he didn't have a K. By checking the turn K (he's even less likely to have one now), I figured to get a lot of value from bluffs since I was showing weakness. My check-raise here looks pretty bluffy, so I'm happy to make the call when he 3bets.

On the river T, I figured to be able to put him all-in and get called by a T, but I also figured that a lot of other hands bluffing the turn (or semi-bluffing with a heart draw) would bluff the river behind my check.

So maybe my play was too tricky for these stakes, but how else could I expect to get QQ all-in on this hand against QT? I like it, but I'm open to criticism.

You obviously played against an idiot here.
If you know he's stacking off with Q high, then go ahead. Usually I don't think there is any value in raising the turn. You get weaker pairs to fold, and when you get called you're usually no good. - This is the exact opposite of what you want.
If you can get value out of xx, then do it. But realize that this only works with really stupid opponents.

Originally Posted by oskar

You obviously played against an idiot here.

I have to disagree here. I had made the same check, check/raise pattern several times with air on previous hands, taking down the pot. This guy was a decent player and had noticed that; I'm pretty sure that on a previous hand we had this same exact pattern and I folded to a reraise.

So when I raise here, I think it looks pretty bluffy (what hand could I possibly have here that makes sense?), and most of the time, he can reraise with air and make me go away. When I call his reraise, though, he should be a bit worried. Fortunately for me, he hit his 10 on the river and thought I had some kind of underpair I might call with. Of course, checking behind would have been the right play here, so on the river, he was definitely an idiot.

Wow, you got lucky here. I mean he kept calling you when there were two overcards on the board. I mean you played it well and he played it rather stupidly, in my opinion. Nice pot though! Especially at this stage.

sometimes bad players will make bad decisions and take certain hands to the grave. sometimes, very passively.

Originally Posted by daguksta

I mean he kept calling you when there were two overcards on the board.

That's the key, though... he wasn't calling me. If you think a loose/aggressive player is bluffing, raising is the right play. Apparently he thought I was bluffing. I would almost never check a pair of kings on the flop and then check/raise a set of kings on the turn. A player with a pocket pair might check, check/call, but why would a pair check/raise that turn? So he could figure that I'm bluffing with a hand like AQ or semi-bluffing with a flush draw, which I would have to fold to his reraise.

Still, I absolutely agree that him shoving the river was just horrible. Maybe if he had missed his hand completely a bluff shove would make sense, but there aren't many worse hands calling his shove. A lot of players tend to think that someone who is loose/aggressive postflop is willing to call bets like that with bad hands, and that is just incorrect against a good player. I may have shoved in bottom pair (holding 72o) on a previous hand, but I'm certainly not calling an all-in with it.

i dont like it.

what does your turn c/r get value from?
against a non donk your 3bet is only being called by better.

you seem to be incredibly results oriented in this hand, if you did this and he showed up with a K is it still a good play on your side?

Originally Posted by sil693

i dont like it.

what does your turn c/r get value from?
against a non donk your 3bet is only being called by better.

Against someone who is picking up on the fact that I've been bluffing a lot, it gets value from a bluff catcher.

Originally Posted by sil693

you seem to be incredibly results oriented in this hand, if you did this and he showed up with a K is it still a good play on your side?

If he showed up with a K here, I would seriously question my reads on this guy. I had been playing with him for several hands and felt like I had a pretty good handle on his betting patterns. He had started to play back at my bluffs, so I was fully expecting him to do so in this case.

Results oriented? I don't know if that really applies here. This isn't a play that I make while playing 6 tables and trying to make the "by the book" play. This is a play I make when I have a good read on someone and have a pretty good idea of what he's going to show up with. Of course I wouldn't always play QQ like this on this board.

I do appreciate the feedback, though. It made me consider that this style of play against a random could never be +EV in the long run. With no reads, I definitely like check/call a lot better.

I would tend to check/call the turn, b/f river unless I had meta to suggest that I could take a bluffier looking line (like you say you did)