I just lost a hand where I had QQ against what appeared to be complete newbies. The villain I lost to had just sat down at the table and went all in with his first hand. I made the assumption that he was like a lot of newcomers when he went all in that he was going to be an all in player every hand, so I called and he had AA and took 400 chips out of my 424 stack. In hindsight I feel I shouldn’t have played the queens against him, since I didn’t know anything about this player other than the ranking assigned to him by Replay, but was advised that I made the correct play, since most newbies seem to play the way I assumed he was playing. Did I, in fact, make the correct play? Thank you for any advice or opinions on this.
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I don’t think you did anything wrong going all-in with QQ as long as you were aware of the much greater risk of doing so pre-flop.
For example, me just yesterday: I get QQ (cool coincidence, eh?), and the BB coming around (1,500) is only two hands away from putting me almost all-in (had about 1700 chips or so), so was I going to get a better hand? Not likely, so I shove pre-flop.
Get one taker - he’s got J10 (I think the 10 was right, but I really only remember the Jack). I’m feeling good! Flop gives him a Jack. I’m still feeling good! Turn gives him another Jack. Not feeling good anymore!
But I was OK with it - made the right call shoving, just got beat.
Yours is a little different in that you weren’t staring at the end of your tournament life and shoving was all I could really do - but I’ve got no problem shoving QQ almost anytime. I’d think the odds are good over time with that move.
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Thank you for your input. The advice I got prior to yours was that in the long run, he’ll probably shove a lot when he shouldn’t, and over time my play would be correct more often than not.
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I snap call all in pre-flop bets at this level with QQ. Sometimes I’m up against AA. More often, it is 72 off.
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That’s the thing with players at this level. They’ll go all in with anything.
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Don’t judge a book by its cover. Lesson learned.
As far as the play, I’m too quirky, and know naught about odds to advise anyone.
It depends how many big blinds it was for. He’s risking his whole stack to win 1.5BB (Assuming no one has put anything in the pot other than the blind. You didn’t specify.)
QQ are in the top 1.35% of hands.
If we do a minimum defence frequency calculation (MDF = pot size / (pot size + bet size)) we get:
1.35% = 1.5 /(1.5 + bet size)
bet size = 1.5 /1.35% - 1.5 = 109.6BB
So, if he shoves for more 109.6BB you should fold. Otherwise call.
This calculation is an over simplification, which ignores the fact there are other people in the hand who can also defend, but I think it will be something along these lines.
(I just made this up, so if anyone wants to say if MDF is irrelevant in this case, or otherwise say where there are errors in the above, then please let me know)