I was playing in a local $75 tournament and I sat down at a table with some fairly competent players. The blinds were 50/100 and I was UTG holding QcJs as I limped and called a raise to 400 from a middle aged lady who was 1 off the button. From how she was playing I got the feeling she had a general idea of position but seems kind of like a TAGish player. Effective stacks were about 9500. The flop came J 8 6 rainbow with the 6 being a club. I bet 400 and she calls. Turn was J of clubs. I check she checks back. At this point my reasoning for checking the turn with trips was because I felt like the only value I would get from this hand now would be if i let her believe that if she had an over pair or maybe a hand like A8 that she would be good and let her call my bet on the river. The river was the 2 of clubs. The pot now is about 1800 and I bet 600 into her and she raised to 3000. I ended up thinking for a while and folding. I'm not sure if I set myself up to get bluffed on that hand but what I'm thinking is that there's 6 combos that could have filled up on the turn as well as her possible hitting an AK flush on the river. At the time I really couldn't find a bluff in her range and felt like I couldn't call. I've been thinking about this hand a bit and I'm curious if I ended up playing this hand too fancy and set myself up for a over bet bluff raise on the river that I wasn't prepared. Maybe I should have played this straight forward and bet the turn but I feel like if she flopped a set and turned a full house the line she took by checking back the turn was something I would have done too to get value out of someone who had a jack.
I'd love some feedback on this hand thank you!

You have QJo UTG, what are you hoping to achieve by getting involved, out of position, against players you describe as fairly competent?

Stop limping with weak hands and at least some of your problems will vanish.

Definitely dont limp call.

If you had folded pre then you wouldn't have been posting this. There seems little point on commenting on the rest of the hand because you only ever get there as a result of a very basic error.

Your opponent in this hand might have a general idea of position, but it seems that you don't.

damn TeamTrousers, the guy only has 1 post

Play a much much much stronger range from EP. QJo is a hand you can profitably raise from LP. I will never play this hand from EP.

If limping in is part of your preflop strategy, you should stop immediately. Search this forum for hands where people are first in, and study them. You'll get an idea of how you ought to be handling yourself in EP.

You could also read a decent book - there are a couple.

GL

Limping in here with QJo when UTG is definitely not the best play, but it's not the worst either. You could have 3x'd and potentially called a 3 bet from the lady that raised your limp who would most assuredly 3 bet you and then that would be terrible. So all though you shouldn't even be playing QJo from UTG especially while you're still learning I really don't hate the limp to mix up your game a bit. But as a general rule of thumb when you raise preflop not only do you give yourself a chance to win the pot uncontested but you increase the size of the pot for when you're trying to extract value from a strong hand, or put more pressure on your opponents attempting to bluff them. Anyway, on the flop you've hit top pair but have a slightly weak kicker, so it's best to just check and call a bet if she makes one, you could be in a lot of trouble here and putting more money in the pot when you could be crushed is not what you want to do. I like the check on the turn, could argue for a bet and try to get value out of pocket pairs and the potential A high but a check is fine, keeps your hand disguised. On the river you should be betting more than 1/3 of the pot, 600 is too small unless you are trying to induce a bluff raise, and maybe that's what the lady did but if this was me I'm almost never folding to that raise. Had you have bet more and then she still raises then it may make me fold since people generally don't bluff raise the river very often when a lot of chips are at stake.

Nice post Blitz, that was a good read and a good analysis.

I have to agree with people saying don't play UTG with QJo.. something that I have recently started doing is folding this junk. Position is key and with no position and no real hand you can be put in spots even if this old lady has nothing.. its much easier to push in position with a bluff than call when you are unsure of your hand out of position( you even made trips! ).

As played, I think I'm muckin this hand as its a good chunk of tourny chips and waiting for a better spot ( cliché I know )

The combination of limp calling QJo pre antes whilst simaltenously rambling about combos and ranges is quite dazzling. You have three of a ****ing kind; bet - sounds like a decent thought process in this situation.

for pretty much everyone saying QJo was a mistake to limp call there I will agree that my pre flop play in the early stages of this tournament was a bit loose and looking back I do realize my river bet was way to small. With all that aside just based on general stereotypes which is all I had to go off of here because I had no hand history before with her am I wrong to think that there's such a small chance of her having air here? I mean there's no way you can just say "if you have it you have it oh well" in this situation just based on the fact that my hand turned into a bluff catcher and there isn't just one hand that beats me here. I'm sure this would be a different thread if I had position but still, I'm just curious if this line of thinking is reasonable or not.

As others have said, fold preflop.

As played, your line of bet flop, check turn when board pairs, bet river, somewhat turns your hand face up.

If villain is competent, the river raise on a paired board, most of the time, is not a hand you beat.

Trips are the type of hand with which inexperienced players lose a lot. There is nothing disguised about your hand, so it is very hard to get a worse hand to call. When raised, you're usually beat.

Better to check/call the flop and check the turn. If villain checks back, plan on check-calling a reasonable bet OTR.

Thanks for the insight taking the line that you mentioned seems like a better play and doesn't completely give my hand away. Thank you!