Poker Strategy Info And Source:
The last #HelloAlec episode for this week is coming from my reader Almondoz from Finland. He played this hand in Pokerstars zoom. He hits a quads on the turn, and he wants to know is there any way he could get more value with his quads? What do you think about the preflop play?
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Nobody's gonna wake up with Td8d and squeeze on the BTN at 5NL so I like a 3 bet preflight. as played, checking flop is fine. when he checks a board like that he's weighted towards medium to weak showdown hands so letting him catch up is fine especially if you're giving him a shot to spike a lower set on the turn. also he probably doesn't have any flush draws when he checks so there's no turn card you're afraid of. like the bet on turn and river so well played.
Honestly, this is the first one of these that I have ever thought, "I would have played it about the same way". It's hard to get value out of quad queens with no Ks or As out there (for the villain to hit top pair with).. Seeing what the villain had in the end, I think you got about as value as you were going to get.
The only thing I would have done differently is probably re-raise pre-flop. Yes. pocket Ks and As are scary, but you just don't run into them very often (coincidentally, while you have pocket Qs). But, think of how frustrating it is when you just call with QQ and your opponent has a hand like A9 – and they spike the ace. This situation happens a lot more often than making quads. 🙂
He would have folded A2 so slow was better,
But your fear of Ax vs QQ allin pre are wrong go all in every time there (him going all in pre is why they have zoom because you should encourage that foolishness and zoom discourages the exploitation of him)
As Bob said, flatting pre is FPS at these stakes. This is okay to do when you play higher and are playing against better opponents (ones that won't show up w/ A2o UTG, for example), for both balance and meta-game. But at low limits, just get the money in and let them figure out a way to start calling.
Same story on the flop. If he has 55-JJ, he's probably calling all the way down no matter what. If he has AK/AJ, he's probably calling one bet whether it originates on the flop or the turn. If he has AA/KK, or a big heart draw, he may even be looking to check/jam, and you can just ship your whole stack in on Q42 w/ QQ. Fun, right?
wow a guys plays 5NL and think he is in a 20.000NL game!
dude come on… don't be delusional, those stakes are played for value and you dumped your value into the trash….
not that this is a very complicated one but why did you stop analysing the hands?
I think the play in a box is fine, but thinking about long term I don't think flatting with Queens pre is really great here. I guess if people are squeezing light then it's ok – but that still puts you in a weird position. I'd kind of rather just raise. Your villain is a first position raiser and is likely to have something that they can at least flat with.
I don't mind the check on the flop – I agree most of the time villains will bet their draws here and the board is otherwise bone dry so he very likely didn't connect. I agree with your turn line as well, there's now enough draws where you can represent a bluff and it doesn't look like there's a lot of value in your range. I think you can actually sneak in a slightly bigger bet because you are trying to make it look like a bluff, and also, on these stakes your villain is really just going to call or fold regardless of bet size (unless you really bet big).
River is solid. The best way to represent a bluff here on the third heart is to bet pot. It looks like a missed backdoor club draw trying to rep a made flush, because of your check on the flop. All in all I think you got about the most you were going to get.
This is a stupid hand to evaluate… Why waste these vids on hands like this?
I think, you played this just fine. I get it, when people say 3-bet the QQ preflop, and I would also do that by default. But it can not be that wrong either to flat. And on the flop, I would also check. Its very hard for him to have hit anything on this flop, and even more so a hand, which you can get multible streets of value from. Yes by checking you are giving heats and some wheel draws a free card. But I think, its worth it to keep him in the pot and allow him a chance to bluff later. Or catch up, so he can call some bets later. Unfortunatly none of that happened. But with the hand, he had, it was really amazing already, that you got two streets of value from him. And I think, it was the flop check, which made that possible.