Going All-in: strategy

I'm holding pocket queens.
Pre-flop the guy to my left goes all-in.

All fold round to me, I call.

He's got King Ten.

I feel like I did the right thing, but he pairs his King and I lose my cash - so is it better to be proactive with all-in moves and do it first?

Seems to me you then have the benefit of maybe winning by making all fold, along with the normal chance at the showdown.

Were you on the big blind? If he open shoved, I'd have no trouble calling with QQ unless I knew he wouldn't make the move with KK+.

You made a decent call, you were a favourite to win, and he just sucked out a king. It happens, but unlucky man.

Calling with pocket queens is much better than open shoving under the gun. Open shove might get you the blinds, but going heads up with an open shove that has been folded around to you has to be +ev. Not an expert , don't know the math, just seems that way to me.

I like your picture, so I'm going to be nice.

you got all the money in as a favourite, its nice to be the one shoving so we also have FE.. but if we're ahead we don't care we just want the money in.

you played the hand fine, just unfortunate he hit a 3 outer.

(note: don't just open shove monsters, hope you already know this)

OMGITSOVER9K said:

I like your picture, so I'm going to be nice.

you got all the money in as a favourite, its nice to be the one shoving so we also have FE.. but if we're ahead we don't care we just want the money in.

you played the hand fine, just unfortunate he hit a 3 outer.

(note: don't just open shove monsters, hope you already know this)

Click to expand...

If hes unsure about calling QQ vs K10, I think these abbreviations may go over his head.

As for the hand, in poker we're constantly look for an edge, if I know im going to be a 60% favourite im happy getting my money in. You had the better hand, just bad luck, you still want the same situation again though.

That is just variance at work. However, let's analyze this a bit.

Let's say you open shove before the K-10. You have no idea what the players yet to act are holding. Furthermore, if you get a call, I would expect to see a range of A-J + , perhaps even KK or AA. Maybe even a donk with KJ. If you got called by any of these except the big two, you are still in good shape, but dangerous situation none the less.

I think you made the right play. If you ran that hand 10 times, statistically you would win 7 out of 10. That is a good investment. Good play, unlucky results.

EDIT: I don't know if you were BB or what. Hopefully you didn't limp with those queens. If you did limp, you open the door to suck outs.

Open shove: open betting by pushing all in. Usually reserved for maniacs and short stacks, but table dynamics may change these requirements drastically.


FE: fold equity. Somewhat of an assumption that the bet or hand has value, and being the aggressor may induce everyone to fold. Not an exact science.

This is my opinion, and nothing more.

^ not bad

open shoving is also applicable to MTTs and STTs (multi-table tournaments/single table tournaments also know as sit and gos)

Calling with pocket queens in pre-flop has a greater risk but having a better a chance of winning, it was a good call, but the guy is lucky

Open shoving w. QQ is a strategy that will only work w. Donks. Your call of his all-in was correct.