Queens Boulevard

Please allow me to be the six millionth person to write about pocket queens. I offer up the lame excuse that I have been getting them often lately, so it made a natural, if often discussed, topic to cover.

Personally, I feel that some players are completely irrational in their beliefs about pocket queens - i.e. that they will definitely cost you more money than they will win back, that they always lose, that they would rather have pocket 10s, etc. I always love that last argument from players, that they prefer lesser pairs. Not lesser hands like suited connectors or something that might have better shot at cracking A,A or K,K, but lesser pairs, like 10s. The argument being that lesser pairs are easier to fold, I suppose. Well, go ahead and fold them preflop if you're so eager to get away from good starting hands and save yourself the decision and the few extra chips.

The thing that is precisely so interesting to me about pocket queens is that I feel it is a hand that is emblematic of what poker is all about. It's a hand that forces decisions, tough ones, ones that can separate winning sessions from losing ones. A made starting hand that can run into resistance in a variety of different ways and is often put to the test, forcing a decision, occasionally for everything. Not such of a no-brainer as aces, or a resignation hand as kings (as in "Well, I've got kings, if you've got aces you've got me") but a hand that forces a player to think, that allows his opponent a chance to make plays on him, and vice versa.

Twice I have lost recently with queens and I wouldn't have played either hand too differently in retrospect. One of the hands I didn't play at all, in fact. I folded pre-flop with Q,Q, after anguishing about it and almost giving myself a brain hemorrhage. The situation was actually easier than I made it to be at the time, but as anyone knows, at a table when things aren't going your way, it can be easy to just ship it and blame fate (see the resignation hand k,k note above). With my starting stack in a cash game whittled from $300 to $135, there was a raise to $10 and a call before me. I looked at Q,Q and bumped it to $35. Another guy behind me went all in for $37 total, then the initial raiser made it $135 to go, which set me all in. The initial caller folded and I stewed but in the end, something about his comfort level was too easy, so I released it and he showed A,A. Play, playback, decision. That is queens in a nutshell for you.

The other hand was slightly more interesting because of how it unfolded and the possibilities therein. Both my opponent and I may have misplayed this hand (so maybe I would have played it differently), or perhaps neither of us did. In a different cash game, with Q,Q I opened to $10 and got a couple callers, including a tight player who had position on me. Flop came all clubs, with my queens as an overpair and with me holding the Q of clubs. Checked to me and I led for $15, getting a call from the tight player and no other action. Turn was a rag and I went for $31 and again was called, after some deliberation. River was more garbage and I went for $62. Again she deliberated but then called and turned over a set of 5s, which surprised me somewhat. What I found interesting about holding queens in this situation is that the flush draw seemed to me to be no good throughout. Her style was tight enough that she wouldn't have necessarily raised with the nut flush draw if she hadn't paired the board and again, I was forced to think through all the different hands she might be holding and think about my play if the flush did hit. Would the Q be good? If it falls, how do I play it? What is my play if she then comes over the top of that play?

I'd be interested in hearing everyone's thoughts on how they like to play Q,Q against various styles of player.