What would be the right strategy when against a preflop raise from a relatively thight player, when holding pocket queens or pocket jacks?
One would have a slight advantage over hands like AK and AQ, but he might also hold AA, KK, or perhaps even QQ, but it is still a coin flip. The question is, is it one worth taking? I might be a favourite, but it only takes one All-in, to go back to zero. I might win once at the table, but lose all of it the next time in a similiar situation.
Now, if I were to call, three things could happen on the flop. Either:
-I pair up with my jacks or queens.
-The flop has no cards higher than my pockets, and I have overpair.
-The flop shows one ore more overcards.
-The first case would obvioulsy suit best. No explanation needed here. The bad thing is, that I'd miss it six times out of seven.
-The second one should be relatively save, unless he indeed holds a AA or KK respectively, and if one of us goes all in, it would have made no difference, had we done so preflop, or after.
-The third alternative offers the opponent a good opportunity to get me out of the hand, irrespective if he made it, or not.
The summary is:
-Raising all in would put me only slightly ahead.
-Calling the flop would cost me the initial raise most of the time, unless I reraise him. On the occasion that I do hit the flop, and I reraise him, I get a lot less compared with going all in.
It seems (given my track record of mainly losses) that either I am not that good a poker player, have some very bad luck with betting into Aces and Kings, or something else I am unaware of. Nevertheless I wanted to write on this topic here. What do you think?
