$25 NLHE 6-max: QQ vs AA Cooler - should I have folded or bad beat?

Winning Poker, Hold'em No Limit - $0.05/$0.10 - 6 players
Replay this hand on Upswing Poker - https://upswingpoker.com/replayer/1q9fVAF

hal1701 (UTG): $2.53 (25 bb)
gophario (MP): $27.92 (279 bb)
Eboglaz (CO): $10.05 (101 bb)
sportsguy16 (BU): $26.68 (267 bb)
BIGINDIAN77 (SB): $6.56 (66 bb)
apmmer (BB): $10.00 (100 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.15) Hero (sportsguy16) is BTN with Q♣ Q♥
3 players fold, sportsguy16 (BU) raises to $0.30, 1 fold, apmmer (BB) 3-bets to $1.05, sportsguy16 (BU) calls $0.75

Flop: ($2.15) 3♠ 9♥ K♥ (2 players)
apmmer (BB) bets $1.61, sportsguy16 (BU) raises to $3.22, apmmer (BB) raises to $8.95 (all-in), sportsguy16 (BU) calls $5.73

Turn: ($20.05) 4♥ (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($20.05) J♣ (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $20.05 (Rake: $1)

Showdown:
apmmer (BB) shows A♣ A♥ (a pair of Aces)
(equity - Pre-Flop: 82%, Flop: 90%, Turn: 95%, River: 100%)

sportsguy16 (BU) shows Q♣ Q♥ (a pair of Queens)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 18%, Flop: 10%, Turn: 5%, River: 0%)

apmmer (BB) wins $19.05

should fold after the flop, when the king comes in the flop, pocket queens is over, in my optinion, i don't know why you raise to $3.22, because the apmmer could have AK, KK, 99 ATh, and even if the flush draw was completed you would still lose this hand, gl in next one

In future, I'd strongly suggest that you disguise the player names out of respect for your opponents. You should be able to do this using your hand converter.
Do you have any intel on your opponents? VPIP, PFR, AF? Have you been attempting to steal a lot of blinds? What's your table image?

As it is, I'd say that this is kind of a cooler in that you would have lost this no matter how you played it... but it's also about how you lost, not just that you lost.

I have no issues with pre-flop. I don't know why you raised on the flop -- villain having K would quite definitely have been in his range, but if you have been trying to steal a bunch of pots from the button until that point, he could have reraised you with less. I would have simply called the flop bet. I wouldn't have folded to a standard c-bet on the flop though... that's giving up way too easily and you can be very much exploited in the future. It's not as if QQ is worth nothing. As played, I wouldn't have called an all-in bet on the flop -- opponent has already given you 2 warning shots (pre-flop and c-bet) and a 3rd bet from opponent would have meant business.

If I flat called the flop, I would have probably folded on a turn bet though. Villain could have had been on a flush draw as well as any holding with a K that would have beat you. If villain checks the turn, then you could have bet it out and tried to take the pot if he was betting the flop with air.

My 2c anyway.

No you shouldn't fold.. you should not raise there ever.. so it's neither folding or bad beat from your question. Just call the flop then see what comes on turn and what your opponent does since you have position.
Also why do you keep putting $25 nlhe in titile.. these are all 10nl hands

In my opinion after the flop you should check and pay to the turn as the flop came very wet and pro his pair of queens was difficult you're losing to the draw pairs kings of aces kings etc, would pay up to the turn and would fold river gl.

As stated above your hand is now only a second pair hand. If you play the premium pairs slow it is often only a one street hand if any over cards fall on the flop. Either you or your opponent suspects they now don't have the best hand.

One call at the most against most normal or tight players.

Always ask yourself if you bet as a bluff or for value. If you raise here on the flop for value you are only ahead if he has a good draw that wants to continue. I you raise and turn you hand to a bluff it is both the wrong flop and the wrong hand to do so with.

If you have a tight image it looks of course extremely strong and can sometimes get AK and AA to fold if they don't want to play for stacks. But that would be almost by accident.

If they call off with those two hands 100 bb or deeper wait until you have two pair, a set or a good combi-draw before you raise.

If he on the other hand folds to often you can raise with some draws and even worse and the fold to a re-raise. QQ is to good to bluff with but to bad to call more than one street. A middle strength hand.

Now your hand is a calling hand, and as stated often only a bluff catcher. Certainly nothing you can raise for value against normal players. (So did you try to bluff and why?)

$25 NLHE 6-max: QQ vs AA Cooler - should I have folded or bad beat?

fundiver199 said:

You could have 4-bet preflop, but you chose to just call and hit a pretty bad flop. However now you get aggressive and start to raise him. What is that all about? Your hand is only a bluff catcher, and you need to play it as such. You can call, if you think, he is bluffing often enough, and if not you have to fold. Mostly I would look to call flop and fold turn is a spot like this.

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Question to your point... are you implying that OP should have 4bet preflop if his intention was to play this QQ aggressively post flop, so as to maintain betting lead? I guess having intel on villain would have helped this decision making process easier.

That said, if OP 4bets preflop, villain would have likely jammed pre-flop - is that a bet you’d call? Or would you fold to a 5bet jam as a reraise effectively limits range to AA or KK, which would have most certainly have us beat.

Now, say villain flat calls a 4bet... then you cbet flop and turn (assuming villain flat calls each)? If villain raises either of those, would you call or fold? Curious about your thought process and planning from preflop in this kind of scenario...

nameless1537 said:

Question to your point... are you implying that OP should have 4bet preflop if his intention was to play this QQ aggressively post flop, so as to maintain betting lead? I guess having intel on villain would have helped this decision making process easier.

That said, if OP 4bets preflop, villain would have likely jammed pre-flop - is that a bet you’d call? Or would you fold to a 5bet jam as a reraise effectively limits range to AA or KK, which would have most certainly have us beat.

Now, say villain flat calls a 4bet... then you cbet flop and turn (assuming villain flat calls each)? If villain raises either of those, would you call or fold? Curious about your thought process and planning from preflop in this kind of scenario...

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If I open QQ from BTN and get 3-bet from the blinds, my default play is to 4-bet with the intention to call a jam for 100BB or less. This is ok against most players, who have a reasonably balanced or even aggressive stack-off range. Of course if we know, the Villain is a nit, that will change my opinion, but we have no such info here. If he just call the 4-bet, then this flop obviously suck, and its a very feel based situation, which I can not give a general answer to.

Pre-flop is fine. It REALLY depends on Villains 3-Bet habits... is he 3 bet bluffing? only doing this with AK, JJ+?

If he can bluff 3-bet, or 3-bet wide, and would fold to a 4-bet with his worse hands, then calling prevents him from playing correctly.

Going off of no info and looking at the hand, fold on that flop. Villain made a large bet, 3/4 pot. You think he is bluffing on this flop?

You only beat his Ax 2 bets. You lose to almost everything else. He has a lot of kings here. As played, it looks like he is trying to get value from you having a king (AK would often flat a 3-bet in position), so you have to think this guy is strong(pocket 99s?), or he is overplaying AK himself. Either way you are beat.

With a smaller bet, maybe you could call and see what draws you pick up on the turn, but unless this guy is a one-and-done better into 3-bet pots, get out early and cheap.

teh_colonel_saigon said:

If he can bluff 3-bet, or 3-bet wide, and would fold to a 4-bet with his worse hands, then calling prevents him from playing correctly.

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Actually we dont particularly mind folds from worse hands. Most of his 3-bet bluffs are A high or K high, which has a lot of equity against QQ. And sometimes a 4-bet can also induce a 5-bet bluff from hands like A5s or AJs, which is extremely profitable for us, since we get it all in with 70% equity.

fundiver199 said:

Actually we dont particularly mind folds from worse hands. Most of his 3-bet bluffs are A high or K high, which has a lot of equity against QQ. And sometimes a 4-bet can also induce a 5-bet bluff from hands like A5s or AJs, which is extremely profitable for us, since we get it all in with 70% equity.

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Hmm.. makes sense, I never thought of that. In that case I like your 4-bet to all-in strategy under 100bbs.

This is only, because we are down to the last 3 players though. If we opened UTG, QQ is typically not a hand, we want to stack off pre for 100BB against most players.