Not the most P.C. heading (on at least a couple fronts), but I do feel a need to vent!
Pocket QQ are proving to be the bane of my existence. Not only did I get bounced out of a tourney last fall at the Wynn by going all-in with QQ (twice, no less--losing to pocket KK and AA, respectively), but the royal dames are settin' me back on our Poker Challenge.
I was just playing the $.10/$.25 NL cash game, and had--almost back to back--pocket QQ in both the screens I was playing. Needless to say, being the aggressive donk I am, I ended up all-in in both cases. Actually, I think I was quite justified: in the window with my bigger stack, I raised about 4x the big blind, the biggest stack at the table re-raised me all-in, and I had to go; the other table I was the re-raiser. In the first, I lost to AA. In the second, he had AJ. His A paired. And then his J. Pure humiliation, like my head in the jaws of a freakin' white tiger.
Anyway, I have had so many nasty experiences with QQ that I am really getting gun-shy about playing the hand (ostensibly the 3rd best starting hand in poker!). A pre-flop raise is clearly a must (can't let A-low or K-low in for cheap), but I would love to hear any thoughts my fellow bloggers or readers have.
I had been slacking this week (actually, I had a valid reason: a 37-hour door-to-door trek from California to SE Asia), and hadn't been playing (or blogging). But these 2xQQ's have melted my stack from $155 to $125--not fun to be sliding backwards. Clearly, I need to make up some ground, and may shift gear to sit'n go's for the weekend in order to do so.
Aaaaargh!
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Being able to lay down QQ is a must in cash games - especially deep stacked. The same goes for early on in tournaments where M is also high and you can wait for better spots. Later in tournaments you just have to stick it in there and take your medicine.
ReplyDeleteLaying down KK is something I don't recall ever managing though.
I've been practicing a fair amount of catch-and-release with JJ, QQ, KK when over-cards hit. I raise hard enough pre-flop (positionally adjusted) that -- barring unpreventable donkeydom -- I've isolated the other strong hands, or at least the A's. If I have QQ or even KK and an A hits, I will likely lay it down regardless, and almost certainly will if there is more than one caller of my original raise.
ReplyDeleteThis has, I believe, saved me a lot of pain lately.