Playing JJ / QQ

[A.M.P]

o.k, I'm looking to the more knowlegable cash game players on here to help me out with these two hands as I think my hand is fatally flawed.

I've had both of these hands tonight and lost heavily. I know it's the wrong play on JJ but I'd look to go "all in" if I didn't know that everyone would fold.

So in both cases I try and "limp in" (unless it's an aggressive loose table). I'll normally stick a raise in of 4x the BB as this normally (not always I saw some numpty recently call an all-in, contested with 4 people with 6 7 o AND WIN!!!)

Where this has gone wrong is that someone re-raises me double my bet. I think (and I wasn't drunk whem i did this today) fcuk it, lets have it then. I think my Jacks met Aces and the Queens met Kings.

Shouldn't I just call and hope for help from the community cards? Should I limit my all ins to AA, Kk and AK s ? Please bear in mind that I'm playing small stake, 25c / 50c NL and people seem to call with crap a lot of the time. unfortunately, not against me

Thanks in advance for any help,

AMP

[mrmuzeman]

JJ- Surely the trickiest hand to play.

[A.M.P]

Cheers for that Mr M. What about QQ though?

[mrmuzeman]

One at a time one at a time

QQ is a fair bit stronger than JJ IMO because you can happily raise with it pre flop if you want to (which I do almost all the time). Kind of treat it like an AK.

In cash games it can be hard to drop QQ before the flop if faced with an all in but its something you have to do IMO. It wont happen hardly ever but if you raise and get re-raised all in or someone else goes all in after the re-raise id drop em (unless they had small stack). You have to expect AA or KK in this situation and at best AKs and I dont see the point in having pre flop races in a cash game. I did this the other day and dropped them - turned out I would have called an all in against 10-10 and AA.

If I got raised after I had raised pre flop I would just smooth call most likely and take a flop.

To be honest after the flop QQ should be played pretty similar to JJ - fast and strong. If you flopped a set great but if you dont and theres no ace or king you can expect to be in good shape but no slowplay here. The chances of an ace or king not falling are around 60%ish I think wheras only 40% or so with Jacks. For this reason youll find yourself playing QQ more after the flop than jacks.

If there are overcards on the flop youve just gotta use judgement but its a pretty scary situation. Youve gotta fire another shell if your in position and its checked to you but if you get called you could be in trouble.

Another note and one I should remember myself sometimes! is dont be afraid to drop the hand if need be. Its only a pair.

[A.M.P]

Thanks again!

[aliensyndm]

AK and AK suited are not all in pre-flop hands when playing cash games.
Remember AK suited is still behind to any pocket pair pre-flop.
If someone else is all in it's a good chance they have a pocket pair or AK themself, hence your scope for being ahead is not very good, unless of course they are some muppet going all in with AQ or AJ.
They could of course have KK or AA in which case you are large behind.
Obviously with AA you try and get as much cash in preflop as you can.
With KK only AA is beating you, if you have KK and someone else has AA well there's not alot you can do about it, it's a cold deck.
But still you have to be wary, I remember I was playing at a No Limit table and I had been doing quite well, I had tripled up hence had three times the max table buy in. Someone else there also was doing ok and had 3 times the buy in too. Now we ended up in a pre-flop raising match when I had AA.
It ended up I put 3 buy-ins in pre-flop with my AA.....this is fine as I am CERTAIN I cannot be behind. He of course had KK. Had I had the KK I would not be raising back so aggressively etc as you are of course risking your whole stack if someone has you covered and you have to think.....the person has stuck his entire stack in, well 3 entire stacks ... is it AA ? If you are the KK call the inital raise or the first re-raise, and see if you flop a set !
The AA held up and all was well.

[mrmuzeman]

Id limit my pre flop all ins in cash games with AA or KK Amp, just personal choice. But I dont believe in playing for a whole stack (in cash games) with an unmade hand (AKs) or a hand that can be dominated by two others (QQ).

[mrmuzeman]

I feel the need to tell a little story of my own for no reason at all really

Couple of weeks ago on cash tables got dealt QQ. Raised to 3xBB on the button, got 2 callers. Flop came down Q 5 4 with two suited cards. First to act made a pot sized bet, then the next player called! Obviously I had the nuts at this point but to ward the flush draw the only option I had left was to push all in.

They both called! and what did they have? One had AQo so muppet frankly and the other had a set of 5s (cold deck for him as he had 2nd best hand at this point). Even though I was against two others for all their money with turn and river to come I was 95% fave! One drawing to running aces and the other the case 5. One of the best pots ive taken


I also was all in with KK pre flop once and someone called with 63s and preceded to flop a flush :

Luckily I had King of same suit and rivered a higher flush

[GETT1NLOTS]

I typed a huge answer to this and just lost it due to a computer crash.

In short - JJ, QQ preflop - if i'm in early I call or small raise - if i'm in middle or late I put in a medium raise. If I'm reraised I call and see the flop (unless I'm playing a nuts / tight as you like player in which case I might read KK, AA and fold - but this would be rare).

If the flop is devoid of any A or K I would put in a raise (no slow playing this hand).

Don't be scared to fold if a A or K comes on the turn or river though. Fold your hand and have a cup of coffee in order to calm down.

[aliensyndm]

I find other caffeine rich drinks such as pepsi work equally well for this purpose.