Queens in the Big Blind

On day one of the 2010 World Series of Poker main event, on the ESPN televised table, the following hand came up.

With the blinds at 150-300, a loose-aggressive young player opened for 700, an older woman who was playing tight and pretty passively called, two other players called, and I looked down at pocket queens in the big blind and called quickly. Five of us took the flop, which came 10 9 8. I checked, and everyone else checked. The K hit on the turn, and I bet out 1,500. The aggressive young kid called, and the passive older woman called. The last card was the 6. I checked, the kid checked, and the woman bet 1,000. I folded quickly, and the kid agonized for a minute (probably because the bet size was so small that he felt like he had to call) before calling. The woman showed down 8-8 and scooped the pot with her set of eights.

What happened here? I like the 700 call from the woman preflop, although if you know that you are a tight-passive player, it might be better to reraise with this hand, especially against the loose-aggressive kid (who probably has a weak holding). A tight-passive player might as well use her image to win a few pots here and there before the flop. As for my quick call preflop, it was a judgment call, and a decision that I made immediately. If I were to have studied awhile before I made that call, an opponent may have thought that I was strong preflop, and I was deep under cover in setting a trap. However, it could be argued (and the math kids on the Internet will argue this) that a reraise here with my queens would have been better. I mean, a reraise would have eliminated at least a few of my opponents, and therefore given me a better chance to win the pot. Maybe a 3,500 reraise would have won the pot preflop. Even I think that a preflop reraise was a better move 80 percent of the time. But this was the main event, and I was trying to play extreme small ball. There was no reason for a player of my caliber to play a big pot with pocket queens, right? Not when I believed that I could skate along and hit 100,000 in chips risk-free.

As for my check on the flop, it was probably better to bet, but the reason that I checked was that it gave me some flexibility. If one opponent bet and another made a big raise, I could always fold. If everyone checked, I could always bet the turn with what would now look like the best hand. If one opponent bet, I could always raise or smooth-call, depending on what my reading abilities were telling me at the time.

I hate the woman’s check on the flop with a set of eights! I mean, she just flopped a set and now is going to give four people a free card? If a jack came off, she would find herself putting in money with the worst hand. Yes, it was a semi-dangerous flop, but she should have bet, and not a small amount, at that. I would like to see her bet 70 percent of the pot.

On the turn, my 1,500 bet was OK. Some might argue that I should have bet more. On the river, my check was pretty standard. The woman’s 1,000 bet was actually OK. She did manage to milk the kid for 1,000, and any 7 beat her (a straight).

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