I was reading a poker forum earlier today, and I saw where a guy on there was wondering where he went wrong playing his pocket queens; he ended up calling a guy who went all-in on a flop of 3-4-6 with pocket kings after limping in/calling pre-flop. All of this motivated me to make a post on playing pocket queens.
The first thing you have to go off of with pocket queens is pre-flop betting actions. As far as the guy with pocket kings goes, I think his strategy was obviously to trap an aggressive player; however, you almost have to discount the chance of somebody A) having pocket kings/aces, and B) limping/calling with this hand. For starters, there is only a 1 in 110 chance that a specific player has you beat pre-flop when you’re holding pocket queens. Another thing is that the average player is at least going to lead out with some kind of raise instead of using the passive/aggressive approach.
After the flop is dealt, you need to take a good look at the board, who is betting, what position they’re betting from, and how they bet before the flop. In the aforementioned example without knowing anything about the situation, you would almost have to call based on the flop (3-4-6) and the pre-flop action. However, what you’ve seen from the player beforehand, and your own style, will reveal a lot more about what to do.
In the aforementioned instance, I read on the forum that the opponent was playing TAG, while the guy who got burned with pocket queens was playing fairly aggressive. Keeping all of this in mind, this guy probably should’ve laid down after the all-in raise – even on a flop of 3-4-6.
Now I’m not saying it would be easy to lay down pocket queens in this instance because it would be all too tempting to call. I’m just saying that, from the outside looking in, I would’ve eventually put the opponent on pocket 6’s or KK/AA based on the information given.
