Pocket Queens in No-Limit Hold’em Play

Pocket queens are easy to play preflop in no-limit hold’em when you have a very short stack. If you have a stack of 25 big blinds or less, pretend that you have two aces (and are unwilling to slow-play them). You have the third nuts, but by the time that you are suspicious the hand is no good, you will be involved too deeply to hit the brakes. So, the poker recipe is to go full steam ahead and hope for the best.

Queens are a much more interesting hand when the money is deep. For the purpose of our discussion, assume that you and all of the other players have stacks of 100 times the big blind, and that there are no antes involved. This, of course, would be a common situation in a mid-limit cash game (blinds of $5-$10 up to $25-$50).

I am going to use a disclaimer before I proceed. This is how I play two queens, and how many pros play them. If you see the flop with half of the hands you are dealt, opponents expect you to hold garbage, and you have a distinctly unexpected, nasty surprise for them. I normally see only one or two flops a round (excluding the blinds). In that context, two queens are still a very above-average hand, but my opponents expect that I will have something decent. Of course, “decent” before the flop can turn into a pig when the flop comes.

I may do something different with two queens than I provide in this column, but if I do, it is because my opponent is far from the typical player in his approach to the game. When I vary, it is because my opponent is a maniac or a super-rock.

I cannot remember the last time that I failed to raise preflop with pocket queens. Although I do not encourage the use of the word “automatic” for anything connected with poker strategy, what you do preflop in an unraised pot does seem pretty automatic when you are discussing pocket queens: You raise.

If the pot is raised in front of me by another player, the first thing I look at is his position. I love playing good no-limit hold’em hands with good position, so I seldom reraise when holding queens. To me, there is not much sense in reraising if you are going to “run off and leave your children,” as Doyle Brunson would say. When I reraise preflop and have position, it is with the intention of playing for all of my money if my opponent is inclined to do so. With a large stack of 100 big blinds, I want something better than queens to back with all of my dough. In other words, I need aces or kings. Reraising and folding is not a betting sequence that I use much when I have good position.

Out of position can be a horse of a different color. I am more willing to win a small pot because I reraised than lose a large pot because I did not. If my opponent open-raised from late position and I am in one of the blinds, he could have a large range of hands. I prefer to reraise instead of play guessing games. If he plays back at me with a reraise, I have a tough decision to make.

If a solid player open-raised from early position, as much as I would like to pop him and get the hand over with, I think a reraise is too risky. When facing a middle-position open-raise when I’m in one of the blinds, I do not have a clear policy, and I pay a lot more attention to factors such as who it is, whether he is stuck or winning, and so on.

I realize that the current style for many of the younger crew is to reraise with hands other than aces, kings, or A-K. Yet, calling a reraise with queens is risky business. I do not want to get 10 percent or more of my stack in, because that is the wrong price for trying to flop a set. So, I think you need to either go with your hand or fold it when calling would get 10 percent or more of your stack committed. With queens, it is tempting to call and then go with your hand if no overcards flop. But all that does is prevent a big loss to A-K. It neither saves you from aces or kings nor enables you to win against jacks or tens.

The reason I am so conservative with queens when deep in money is my desire to avoid the “big dog, small favorite” syndrome. If you likely are facing aces, kings, or A-K, you are more than a 4-1 underdog against one of the big pairs, and around an 11-9 favorite against A-K. So, even if you are fortunate enough to be facing A-K, you are in a bad gambling situation.

Now that we have discussed the theory, let’s take a look at a couple of concrete situations and see what to do in practice. Let’s assume that you are playing with blinds of $5-$10 and no ante, and, of course, have pocket queens.

1. It’s a no-limit hold’em live cash game. You have a grand, and are in the big blind. Three players who have bigger stacks than you do limp in from the under-the-gun, hijack, and button positions. The small blind, who has a short stack of $250, raises to $75. What should you do?

Answer: The question is whether to just call or reraise. If you call, this may well bring in the field. On the flop, the short stack is going to have $175 left with a pot of $375. You can be pretty sure that he is going to shut his eyes, hope for the best, and go all in. This is a dangerous and highly unsatisfactory situation for you. An overcard, especially an ace, might not beat you, but it makes calling in unattractive option, even though you may have the best hand. Even if you get what looks like a good flop of three undercards to your queens, how are you going to play the hand? Are you really going to be cautious and just call, giving the other players a cheap card in a big pot? I think the safer and better preflop play is to reraise.

2. You are on the button with two red queens and have about a grand in chips. The other players have stack sizes similar to yours. The under-the-gun player calls, some players fold, and the cutoff raises to $50 straight. What should you do?

Answer: I prefer to just call. This is not a good place to stick your neck out. The under-the-gun player might have limped in with a big pair. The cutoff has a good hand when he raises a lone under-the-gun limper.

The bottom line with two queens is to be aggressive preflop with a short stack and cautious preflop with a big stack.

Bob Ciaffone has authored four poker books, Middle Limit Holdem Poker, Pot-limit and No-limit Poker, Improve Your Poker, and Omaha Poker. All can be ordered (autographed to you) from Bob by e-mail: [email protected]. Free U.S. shipping to Card Player readers. Ciaffone is available for poker lessons at a reasonable rate. His website is www.pokercoach.us, where you can get his rulebook, Robert’s Rules of Poker, for free. Bob also has a website called www.fairlawsonpoker.org.