Should I have called all-in with QQ?

[roundcat]

I played a live tourney tonight. During the second or third hand, a player in front of me went all-in pre-flop. I had QQ in middle position with most of my original stack intact. Not wanting to risk my tournament life so early on, I folded.

The guy's jaw was twitching, but never having played with him before, I didn't know whether he was sweating it or wanted a call. After everyone else folded he claimed he had QQ and was hoping someone would call, but he didn't show his cards so I don't know if that was true or not. If it was, we obviously would have chopped the pot.

Anyway, was it a dumb move not to call with QQ, or was it reasonable not to want to risk it all that early? I'm afraid I may be playing too conservatively.

 

[xdmanx007]

Well depends on the skill level of your opponents and the blind or ante structure of the tournament. In a turbo style format then yes you probably should have called. If in a normally structured tournament with slowly increasing blinds then you can make a solid arguement your fold was correct. Early in NL tournaments IMHO the BEST strategy is live to fight another hand early and ramp up the aggression as things roll on. ALSO to sum up Tight when the bets are a small portion of your stack loosen up as the blinds get to be larger.

 

[Dorkus Malorkus]

I'd hazard an estimate that about 90% of the time villain is a donk with AA/KK and "scared of a bad beat" here.

 

[twizzybop]

With 3rd best starting hand, hard to know if it was the correct decision. I recently as well just played my very 1st live game. This one guy I was talking to gave me an instant tell way before the tourney started. When he goes all-in it is with pocket JJ's or better. Yes true to form he always did.. BTW I was knocked out with the same pocket QQ's who put me as well all-in with A,J suited. I watched the rest of the tourney to watch others and see if I can pick up on other people's tells. I nabbed one person's tell instantly.. Proud of myself because of this while watching but of course kept that info to myself.

 

[colin_147]

This is the kinda hand where sometimes you call, sometimes you lay down. Its not a hand you "right, I gotta call an all in bet everytime cos I got QQ". Like the other guys said, if this guy gave away a big tell then perhaps you made the right decision.

QQ is a very nice starting hand though and you will play this or call a big bet 95% of the time

 

[t1riel]

If it was that early in the tournament, I would have laid it down. It's better to give him the blinds (and since it was early in the tournament, it probably wasn't much) then to risk giving him most, if not all, of your stack.

 

[Xandit]

I like the fold, you can pick a better spot when you know your ahead or at least even plus it's early.. When i play i always try and remember the old addage "You need a better hand to call a raise with than to raise with". It's helped me in similar situations.
Xandit

 

[XXIII]

Yeah it as a smart fold. You might have won. But really with what 15 chips in the pot is it worth going all in? Any Ace or King that hits is better then the queens(saying if he had AK AQ AJ KQ KJ etc...). Pocket Qs are the hardest hands to play for me. Always end up heads up with someone who has AK giving him 6 cards to hit

so good fold ... later on I'd have called depending on chip stack

 

[titans4ever]

I always go by the saying:
You never see someone win a tournament in the first hand but you see lots of people lose one.

That just hit home with me. The first one or two rounds are just feeler rounds and in the long run don't make that much of a difference in the game. Unless you unfortunate enough to take some bad beats and short stack yourself or by chance have the nuts and can safely double up.

I tend to not be too aggressive early on and like to be a cheerleader, sit on the sidelines and watch the action and cheer "nice hand." I want a read on players before I start mixing it up.

I think it was a smart tournament move.

 

[roundcat]

OK, I feel better about that laydown now. Later on in the tourney when I was short stacked I would have gone all-in without hesitation, but just didn't feel right about it so early on.

I think the guy was bluffing and lied about having QQ himself (what are the odds of two of us having the same hand and all queens being out of the deck?), but of course I'll never know for sure. That jaw twitch told me he was stressing out about something, and I think he'd have been more confident if he had a strong hand. Then again, my heart beats fastest when I have something fabulous, so who knows.