Did I play this bad?

[PKKFW]

Villain is 15/11, EP open raise 10%, Fold to 3bet once(only been 3betted into the one time), Agg 2.0, raised flop 40%, cbet 100%, raised donk bet 100%, turn bet is 33% and turn aggression is 18% over 139 hands

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (7 handed) - PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP1 ($10)
MP2 ($4.15)
CO ($10.39)
Button ($4)
SB ($5.21)
Hero (BB) ($9.97)
UTG ($11.03)

Preflop: Hero is BB with Q, Q
UTG bets $0.35, 5 folds, Hero calls $0.25

I'm putting villain on TT+, AKs, AQo+ and maybe KQs though unlikely.

I chose not to 3bet because I would be OOP and I didn't want to call a shove with Queens if he did that as I think he would only do that with KK+.

Flop: ($0.75) 3, 9, 10 (2 players)
Hero bets $0.70, UTG raises to $1.80, Hero calls $1.10

So no over cards = good but all spades = bad.

I chose to donk bet figuring he might fold out AK, AQ and KQ if he had no spades. Probably not a good idea on this board and with no spade myself. I'm still working on picking my spots to be aggressive.

His raise seemed very light to me in comparison to other flop raises I'd seen him make. I put him on AsXo or possibly a made flush. Small possibility of KK+ though I really don't think so. Possibility of a set but I'm not sure he would raise with 3 spades on the board. I discount JJ-QQ for the same reason. I discount any OESD as I don't think he is raising UTG with QJs or 87s.

With the benefit of time and hindsight I have done the pokerstove calcs and my equity against this range is only 15.9% and I have to call 25.2%. However, take out KK+ from the range as I really don't think it is likely and my equity is 21.5%, and then take out any sets and my equity goes to 33.9%

So my call is borderline to bad really and dependent on what range I think most likely. Strictly speaking I guess a fold would be the sensible option here.

Frankly I made the call because as I said, his raise seemed very light compared to other raises I'd seen him make and my intention was to see what he did on the turn.

Turn: ($4.35) K (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG checks

After his check I narrow his range down to AsQx+, or a set he doesn't want to get into trouble with if I've already made the flush. I discount a made flush because I think that after my flop call he would have been value betting a made flush.

River: ($4.35) 8 (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG checks

Total pot: $4.35 | Rake: $0.21

Thoughts and comments?

[scott_owen]

if your villain likely has AK, KQ, AQ with no spades, and a 100% cbet. why do you think that donk betting to see them fold is a good idea? ..not saying donk bet is bad, just that your reasoning is bet to make worse hands fold, which is a little bit against the fundmental concept of why to bet.

as far as preflop.. your saying that you should never raise because the villain might have the nuts and you dont want to call if he has the nuts and shoves.. which is a pretty standard reason to not call if he shoves. There's plenty of hands that will continue vs your QQ's though that you are ahead of so you gave up value and initiative by playing so passively. Being OOP is a good reason to take care with the reasoning for your bets post flop, not a reason to get scared and passive when you have a good hand.

flatting with high PP's is a trap for your villain, and you are better to do that in pos. your trying to gain value out of hands like TT/JJ or missed overs that cbet, but you try to donk them all out of the hand before you offer them the chance to bet into you. That is obviously dependant on board texture but i get the feel from you post that you werent considering that, you just wanted to shut the hand down early so you didn't lose with your queens.

As far as the rest of the hand i think checking it down is ok, its not a board i like to bluff when out of position like that, you offer villain a big chance to give you a tough decision if you do and gain no value for your Qs at all.

I'd say your probably pretty close to the mark with AsQx

[daviddem]

I chose not to 3bet because I would be OOP and I didn't want to call a shove with Queens if he did that as I think he would only do that with KK+.

Your reasons are bad:
- one good reason to 3bet would be not to want to play QQ out of position postflop without initiative against a UTG raiser, combined with the fact that he could call you with "worse" hands such as AK (say he calls you with AK, he only has about 34% chance to hit an A or K on the flop)
- one good reason not to 3bet would be if you think he will always fold "worse" hands (such as AK) and only continue with hands that beat you (KK+).
- another reason not to 3bet would be if you think he could 4 bet for example with AK or JJ and get you to fold the best hand.

In this case your opp is not a super-nit, so I think I prefer to 3bet unless I have a read that he is capable of 4betting wide.

I chose to donk bet figuring he might fold out AK, AQ and KQ if he had no spades.

This is terrible thinking. You should be absolutely delighted if he called your bet with AK or AQ (with or without one spade), because that's exactly what makes you money. You make a value bet, you want him to call. Time to go back to the two fundamental reasons for betting: for value (to get worse hands to call) and as a bluff (to get better hands to fold). If you don't get that, read the first chapter of Easy Game vol I. Re-read also Sklansky's fundamental theorem: every time your opponent makes a mistake (ie calling with the worse hand or folding the best hand), you profit. He calls it "winning the battle of mistakes".

Now there are arguments to donk bet here, but there are also arguments not to against such an aggressive opp:
- you will often get raised and be at odds of what to do
- he will often bet worse hands himself (100% cbet)
So I think I prefer a passive and pot control approach to keep all the air in his range and check/call the flop, even if the downside is to give a free card. This is very debatable though. If I was going to donk bet, I would certainly bet smaller (60% pot is fine).

Similarly your thinking is wrong when you form your ranges. Why would he not raise the flop with a set or AA/KK or even JJ? (he has aggressive postflop stats with 40% raise flop and 100% cbet). In his eyes, made flushes are only a small part of your range and he can value raise his made hands against your range. He could also be doing it with AsX or stuff like KsQ as a semi-bluff, and obviously also with made flushes.

You don't fare well against the above raising range, even if there are lots of semi-bluff draws in it. If you call the raise you will be OOP for the rest of the hand and you pretty much have to fold to any further bet even if the turn bricks (if you call anything more, you will be completely committed). For these reasons, I prefer to give up on the flop. Again, it's debatable.

As played, checking down the hand is fine imo.

[Imthenewfish]

first, top 10 % looks something more like 66+,AJs+,KJs+,AJo+,KJo+, and you could probably 3b for value because he seems kinda nitfishy so you're probably going to get value from a lot of that range. on the flop i don't really get why you're trying to fold worse, and like any FD's he has have overs or some extra straight outs so you're flipping against like everything you're getting value from. when he raises, , you're OOP and have 2 more streets, so you're most likely calling more than the $1.10, and i don't really get why you'd call here because you're not really keeping in any worse bluffs that you can get value from on later streets, and i don't really think he's value raising worse here. shoving could be justified by the dead money, but i don't think there's near enough.

[PKKFW]

All good points and thanks for pointing them out.

Pre flop I think I just gave him too much credit for opening from UTG. Worst case scenario if I 3bet is I'm thinking about folding to a 4bet shove if it happens. I've got 3rd best possible hand right now, and as you've all pointed out, he could call with alot of hands I beat. 3betting would have given me the initiative too. In future I think I will definitely be 3betting in this spot and then evaluating further if the 4bet/shove comes rather than fooling myself into thinking it is going to happen.

On the flop I think there was probably a good deal of "scary flop, try to shut it down now so make a bet" kind of thinking. Not a good place to be making decisions from. Like you all have said, I should be delighted if he is calling with a draw or possibly I should be giving him a chance to bet the flop and then decide if call, fold or raise is the best option.

The call of the raise was, as I mentioned, very questionable. I will admit I had intended to c/f the turn to any bet so I probably should have just folded the flop. I can only say that his raise size seemed so out of the norm compared to other raises I'd seen him do. There was definitely a part of me that just wanted to see what he would do on the turn in this scenario. More for future reference than anything. Again, not really the best way to make decisions regarding specific situations.

Seems you all agree checking it down was fine which is good to know.

[bikes]

vb the river

[daviddem]

^ I find that pretty thin? What kinda calling range can you find against which we have >50%? Are AA and AK not on the river?

[PKKFW]

vb the river

I'm assuming this is tongue in cheek but just in case you are serious I would like to hear your reasoning.

[OngBonga]

Villain is likely calling JJ and Tx hands with spade, so I think we can value bet this river.

I agree mostly with imthenewfish's range of 66+,AJs+,KJs+,AJo+,KJo+ except that villain is under the gun, so I'd remove KJ, KQo and probably AJo, and replace them with small pairs, since I run at around 15/11 and I usually fold these hands utg. I'm much more likely to raise 22-55 utg than these broadway hands. Sometimes I think villain can have JTs too, and very rarely he has junk, again that's based on my game.

Flop is ok, I'd probably c/r hard but I don't mind donking pot size.

Turn c/c fine.

River I think there's value there, hands that crush us are betting the turn. We should know we're good, so why should we fear being raised? b/c river.

[daviddem]

^^ if you agree with imthenewfish's range then he can't have Tx on the river. Only hand you beat that he calls a river bet with with is now JJ.

[OngBonga]

The question is, what does he check the turn with that we lose to? I can't think of anything. Does he really check AK with a spade ip? What about the nuts? Would he really give us a free river if we have sets in our range? Certainly a set or AA is betting. I think villain rarely has a ten here, not often, but not never. He often has JJ and AQ w/spade, and sometimes worse pairs might call after taking this line.

By the river, I think we're ahead way more often than behind, so value betting the river makes sense to me. If he raises, fuck him, call, it's a bluff more often than the nuts.