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This was in a 3-5 game at Commerce in L.A. – The buy-in structures are shallow there, which leads to a lot of gambling, bullet firing, and not a ton of deepstack play. Max buy for 3-5 NLH is $200. But that’s not the topic, just some context.
I am in the lowjack with QQ. UTG+1 limps, folds to me. I raise to 25, villain on the button calls 25, folds back to me. Heads up to the flop. Villain is a nice, older guy, has been playing the game for years. Has been fairly tight at this table thusfar, but a bit willing to see flops in late position. He has 160 or so behind, I have him covered. 57 in the pot after the drop, Flop is TJQ rainbow.
I elect to shove – my reasoning is this: he would have re-raised preflop with KK or AA. AQ is a tough sell given the blockers, but JJ and TT are both in his range here. Obviously AK is the one I don’t want to run into, but on this board I can pretty much get a call from either lower set, maybe a call from a gutshot with a big pair (AT, AJ, A9). I have boat equity if the board pairs, and if he has AK already, I’m pretty sure I’m either going to donk it off or be put in a tough spot if either an A or K comes up. So I chose to rip the bandaid off and shove, he calls and has AK, I don’t improve.
Any other thoughts on other ways I could have played this?
TBH I’m not liking the shove. 2x flop shove that hits both your ranges hard. My preference there would be to bet smallish or even check, rely on my awareness of his tendencies and evaluate. I’d be looking for any reason to fold. To me this is no different than playing QQ against an Ace on board against a happy family – probably drawing thin to dead. Sometimes, you have to let it go and lose the minimum. It sounds like you wanted to gamble, if that’s the case then say so and that’s ok – people play that way and especially when trying to build a stack in a restricted game like you described. Another way to look at it – if the board was double suited or even only a single suit – what would have you done? That might let you know of your capacity to get away from your hand or tell you another way to play it.
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