$4 NLHE 6-max: How to react to a 3 bet with pocket queens.

SB ($1.48)
BB ($3.24)
UTG ($5.94)
MP ($0.45)
CO ($1.72)
Hero (Button) ($4)

Preflop: Hero is Button with Q , Q
2 folds, CO calls $0.04, Hero raises $0.16, 2 folds, CO raises $0.24

What action does hero take here?

Read this after you make your analysis.

Opponent at first makes a call, so i think he can have weak hands like AT, AJ or worse Ax, some pocket pair less than TT and he wants see cheaply the flop. I think that 4bet is the best option, I probably go all in, because fish sometimes will make call with any Ax.

With no history, the only obvious thing to go on is that he's playing less than a half stack. This suggests he not a good player. Not that this line would make much sense if I knew him to be decent.

I'm not folding against an unknown, so my choices are calling and re-popping. I'd lean toward the latter but I don't have much feel for how much better this is.

How much did he buy in for?

These are difficult with no info on villain. Normally a limp and reraise in early position is AA or such. This guy does this in late position. He may be trapping in this position because he is not positionally aware.

The other thing is it is a small reraise. Perhaps he is looking to squeeze more value while not scaring you away. I just don't see the logic of doing this otherwise with non paired high cards, unless he is really fishy and also overvalues AK.

Reraise him strong and see if he comes back over the top. If he just calls, be wary of AK on flop and fold to action with A or K on the board.

At least you have to call here. All-in is also good. By calling, we want to see the flop and because of pot odds. By being all-in, because of fold equity and stack size.

2 or 4nl and QQ+ the answer is keep piling money in until you can not keep piling money in and don't even think about it

Min 4-bet and call a shove. Let him make the biggest mistake possible. I don't think calling and shoving most flops is bad either, but against a half stack, I'd try and induce him to shove his Ax hands or who knows what else.

hashtag said:

How much did he buy in for?

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Are you going to play differently if he bought in short vs. if he bought in full and didn't reload?

Normally a limp and reraise in early position is AA or such.

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Normally, meaning a decent majority of the time? Do you have data to support this? I'm not suggesting it doesn't happen. It does. But how often?

Arjonius said:

With no history, the only obvious thing to go on is that he's playing less than a half stack. This suggests he not a good player

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Since when did we start judging villains skill level on the size of their stack?? I understand you're stating the obvious being that villain is not multi-tabling ring with auto load on but this has nothing to do with how well he understands the game. This could be a pro attempting a BRM challenge from 0... You never know the case.

Now I read the spoiler and the line doesn't make much sense. Maybe his skill level isn't up to par... There, now you have info on him.

Arjonius said:

Are you going to play differently if he bought in short vs. if he bought in full and didn't reload?

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I was asking this for some more information on the villain, not to suggest how we should play. Specifically, I was looking to see if he was a hit and run merchant, or if he was a full buyin player doing badly/playing badly.

Normally, meaning a decent majority of the time? Do you have data to support this? I'm not suggesting it doesn't happen. It does. But how often?

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I don't normally entertain these "do you have supporting data" questions. It is all too easy to ask this type of question if you disagree with and want to discredit someones opinion without having to do any work/provide any input yourself.

Filtering in PT4 for UTG limp followed by raise in any other position, then followed by UTG reraise has given me 46 results. The results are interesting (I've never looked at this before). There is a clear split between players with reg stats, and players with really fishy stats of 50+ VPIP. Sample is 63000 hands.

The regs are reraising UTG with AA, KK and QQ almost exclusively. I have 3 out of 20 hands with regs who also did this with AKs. I see these hands had a major fish involved so that may explain this.

The fish on the other hand are playing this line with 77-JJ and other hands like AJ, KQ, AKo etc. I have a couple who did this with suited connectors too. Again, these are players with at least 40 VPIP, most being in the 50% range.

So like I said originally, it is difficult to say for sure when we have no info on the villain.

I would 4-bet. Once you do 4-bet with queens, you are committed anyway. Only if your opponent had AA or KK it is not a profitable call, but the chances of that are small. Just go with the hand. If he is bluffing (because the bet looks weak) then there is a sweet pot for you. It looks like a fishy value bet, but I think they are restealing because they think you are stealing or just have a big hand.

GGI pre or raise bigger. against a villain

Even if he has AK we will beat him 2/3 of the time if he calls and unlucky if he has KK AA but it wont happen enough to worry about though its a higher varience play but still +ev especially against the right players.

dealio96 said:

Since when did we start judging villains skill level on the size of their stack?? I understand you're stating the obvious being that villain is not multi-tabling ring with auto load on but this has nothing to do with how well he understands the game. This could be a pro attempting a BRM challenge from 0... You never know the case. .

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I'm taking his stack management as a small suggestion as to his ability, not as a solid read. If you think there's no value in doing so, that's fine for you. OP and anyone else reading this can decide for themselves how much weight if any to assign to this and other small things.