When to fold

I'm having a hard time folding after flop. Today dealt QQ flop had A in it and couldn't let them go. It was a free roll and a weak ace was played. It seem no matter the bet pre flop free roll or cash mtt players hold the weak ace and crush a large pocket pair.

Yes I think people tend to play any ace in any position on the freerolls online whereas they are more likely to fold weak aces especially in early position in a regular live tourney. If you are playing a freeroll online and an ace hits the flop beware if you don't have one.

Unfortunately the freerolls are played that way, when you leave with par try per chip in the pot, and twist to beat your pair, or lower cards on the flop.This is poker.

Rawdeal1955 said:

I'm having a hard time folding after flop. Today dealt QQ flop had A in it and couldn't let them go. It was a free roll and a weak ace was played. It seem no matter the bet pre flop free roll or cash mtt players hold the weak ace and crush a large pocket pair.

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You need to have the courage to throw an QQ when you see a king or an ace on the table. This is not a simple solution, it is quickly forgotten if you made it on the flop or turn without seeing the opponent's card Seeing the bluff from your opponent can make you sad and bad to play further

As everything in poker it depends from many factors. Sometimes you should muck your QQ if there is a over card on the board. Sometimes you must call even with a third or second pair if your opponent cbets his whole range. Be observant for your opponent's betting patterns after flop and be extra careful in freerolls where any Ax , Kx seems like a monster to the vast majority of the players. The questions is not as simple as it may seems , good luck !

Freerolls are much different than buyin tournements up to $10-20. People will play anything from any position

With a high raise pre-flop, having QQ on hand, you would have easily beaten the opponent out of that hand and would not have got into such a difficult situation. Pocket Queens need to play aggressive.

Know when to fold is an art ... unfortunately I do not dominate

Depends on how many players see the flop, how the action went preflop and villans cbet sizing and %. If he is cbetting every flop that checks to him, then you may need to fire a check raise to see how they respond. If he calls and keeps firing then you need to make a decision based on the rnage you give them and how they have been playing prior to this.

Those things can happen especially on a freeroll, microstakes, and on an late stage of a tournament, where more hands are played usually. The only thing I can tell you is to play your QQ more aggressively on preflop, to scare more take away more opponents from the pot and to get the most value if the flop comes nice. In the flop given, where it had an Ace, it's not nice to play paying or betting hard, in fact is more considerable to just check on the flop and on the turn, and if the opponent is also scared of the ace or of the board, you can get some more value on the river if you think yhour opponent will pay you, but be careful when doing that cause you need to know what your opponents is more likely to do in that case.

Sometimes check

It ic better to check/call with QQ out of position on A high board, but in position c-bet can be a good option, as you will be against blinds mostly and blinds have wide ranges, which makes it a profitable play.
GL!

When you are aware of the problem its much easier to fix. When those calls start costing you actual money, or even better, BIG money, you'll start to make those folds. But thats the hard way of learning, and you sound too smart to have to learn the hard way. Either get it in pre or fold post.

Rawdeal1955 said:

I'm having a hard time folding after flop. Today dealt QQ flop had A in it and couldn't let them go. It was a free roll and a weak ace was played. It seem no matter the bet pre flop free roll or cash mtt players hold the weak ace and crush a large pocket pair.

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It's a huge psychological roadblock for me. After busting many tourneys this way I simply started telling myself I'll get the better of the situation later. It sucks, especially if you've waited 20-30 minutes for a playable hand and this happens. But there have been other instances where after mucking a premium hand like this I've scored large immediately afterward with other hands. Remembering these instances helps make the correct decision to fold is what works for me. To reinforce that letting go with what I've lost so far and preserve the remaining stack for large scores later has done a few wonders.

But it has not been very natural. There have been times during tilt where I've ignored these obvious warnings and gone ahead despite knowing better. Psychologically, I find that remembering the good hands where the correct decisions have worked is much harder than remembering the bad hands your opponents have played against you, so it's a lot of work for me to make the correct decision over and over again.

I do that too but notice if you just fold you come out with better results

A good fold is as good as a pair of AA, you have to start practicing this technique but it is not easy to throw away a pair of QQ.

If it's a freeroll, then just shove with QQ preflop

Thanks to your thread title I now have Kenny Rogers in my head.

robertocoelho said:

A good fold is as good as a pair of AA, you have to start practicing this technique but it is not easy to throw away a pair of QQ.

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I agree, it's not easy. I have done that mistake many times and will do it many times after this as well. And of course it's not even a mistake every time. It has helped me a bit when I started to think that those QQ's are nothing but one pair unless you hit a set or something better. It's easier to let it go then if you don't catch anything and if you have higher cards on the table.

You dont want to play a big pot with qq in an ace high board. You'll wont get more than one street of value on those kind of boards, so exercise tons of checking back and bluff catching in position and check folding OOP.

Rawdeal1955 said:

I'm having a hard time folding after flop. Today dealt QQ flop had A in it and couldn't let them go. It was a free roll and a weak ace was played. It seem no matter the bet pre flop free roll or cash mtt players hold the weak ace and crush a large pocket pair.

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Yeah, I hate when that happens, because I'm thinking there are only this many outs/cards that can beat me and then out of nowhere the cards the opponents need help them and I always get beat.

The way I see it, I am never going to stop being aggressive on high pocket pairs because how often are you going to get dealt those premium cards.

I know you have to play smart but as well, how are you going to get far if always there are overcards that beats you. Have to be aggressive.

The key tip I would tell you is note your opponents betting patterns during the hand, and what I mean by that is doesn't matter what your hand you have, if your opponent is extremely aggressive take pause look at the board and think am I beat?

It might save you dollars.