QKs in 3bet pot

Fold pre IMO. As played, you can call one bet, as you have the back door flush as well.

I think fold pre is better. I also think that flop is a fold. Villain is not very likely to bluff vs MP and if his range is JJ+, AJ+ we have 20% equity with our BDFD+gutshot. To call we need 26%. If we hit club OTT he would have to check or bet only half a pot for us to have odds to call. If he has TPTK or better he will probably bet bigger very often if there is a second club OTT to protect his hand.

I think that calling this hand preflop vs a 3bet is fine. For me KQs is a standard defending range MP vs 3bet when I have position. Since we can't fold every flop which we don't hit big, because we would then fold way too much to flop cbets, I think we can call once with a gutshot. The board is dry, so defending by calling is standard there. If he is folding too much to raises when he cbets flop in 3bet pots (but we don't have that read), we can raise. Also, many players would bluff cbet A-high boards by default. If he checks the turn, we can bet and plan to bet the river. If he bets the turn, we can fold unimproved.

Looking at villain's stats (even though a very small sample), he looks like a loose/passive player, which means 3betting ought to be fairly strong (AA, KK, QQ, AKs, AKo, maybe AQs). Against that range, you are crushed. I agree that this is a fold pre (though I often struggle to do that myself with KQs) and definitely a fold on the flop. If you call on the flop, the only good card is a T. Even if you turn a flush draw, you're probably not going to get the right price to call a Turn bet.

No need to look at stats when hand sample is small!!!
KQs is standard defend hand in this situation.
Flop is a fold.

What about raising the flop? We only give us one option to win the hand, which is hit our gutshot on the turn. If villain 3bets the flop, easy fold. If he calls, we might get a free river in position.

His 3bet range kind of hits that board though, whether it's more value oriented or bluffy - all his Axs 3bets also hit that board. He might fold some Ax hands vs a raise on the flop, but I'm not really sure what hero would represent on the flop with a raise. The backdoor flushdraw only adds ~3 % of equity to our hand so I don't think it justifies a call every time in these spots - or at least then you will have to be able to win the pot without a showdown from time to time. Otherwise you're just burning money in non-SD losses if you fold too many turns.

Raising is too expensive in 3b pot and board hits him.

Originally posted by nitrol
No need to look at stats when hand sample is small!!!
KQs is standard defend hand in this situation.
Flop is a fold.

If you're going to be folding when you flop a gutshot and BDFD, you probably shouldn't be calling KQs pre.

I find it interesting that 3 people have said that this should be a fold PF and 2 people have said it should be a call, both of whom give the reason that this is "standard". I'm not sure whether it should be call or a fold, but I'd prefer a more reasoned argument.

It depends. Vs. a player with aggressive tendensiec it is a call. We have to defend some portion of our opening range. Postflop it is a clear call vs this guy. Vs a nit it would be a fold i think. On the flop Villian needs 36% Foldequity, to make his bet breakeven. So We have to defend 64% of our defendingrange on the flop. And a gotshot is crearly in that range.

I think that's got too game theoretic for NL10. We're clearly well behind OTF even if he's guaranteed to c-bet his entire range, because the flop hits villain's range so hard. So call is -EV. If villain is c-betting too wide we punish him by bluff catching in spots he can actually be bluffing. To reverse what MJPerry said, if we're going to be forced to call a c-bet here, I vote to fold PF.

I wouldn't fold this as played when we got position vs a player that seems fairly active with his 3b, I wouldn't fold to the flop cb as we got very good turn cards for us, notice that I would play my entire range as a call in this spot, even sets no reasoning for raising him imo. If you're folding KQs in this spot I believe you might fold to much preflop and people can exploit u with 3b any 2 cards vs you and be proftible.

I don't think we should worry too much about being exploitable at this limit. If a handful of villains spot an opportunity to auto-profit against us, well played them. They aren't the players we are aiming to make money from. In addition, when we notice a villain 3-betting wide against us we adjust our game plan to exploit him. In my view most people are calling 3-bets too wide out of a mis-placed desire to punish bluffs.

But we should start building a conscious well thought game as soon as possible no matter the limit. And as low the limit as cheaper the mistakes.

That is true. I'm getting close (well, within $100) to moving up a limit, so I am attempting to introduce some more advanced concepts into my game plan now for that very reason.

call pre is good , with KQs IP, call flop , i would normally show some aggression on turn and river!