Playing 1/3 NL with about 75BB.

I'm on the SB with QJ suited and call a $16 pre-flop raise with 3 others.

Flop comes: QJ6r.

I check to the pre-flop raiser in UTG. He makes it $85. Two others fold.

Hero decides to shove to $190. UTG calls with AKs.

Turn card: A

River: 6 -- counterfeits the board and UTG wins with two pair.



Was shoving the right play here? If I had just called I would have had to flat the turn card once the A pops. But by shoving here I'm pushing out the straight draw or weaker pairs.

I think I just got coolered since he hit runner runner.

Don't be results oriented, it was just bad luck. You did a great shove since you got a caller when you where way ahead of him. And if he was on a straigh draw you don't want to give him the outs to draw you out.

Even tough, AKs is one of the weakest hands in UTG range to call your shove, you'll be facing something like AQs, AA, KK, QQ, JJ. The possibility of the worst hands to make better 2P or a set shouldn't be a concern

also think about how much % of your stack you called pre with a weak hand that is probably dominated, and you are oop.

Postflop is fine, get that money in ASAP.

Preflop is pretty dubious.

werebeer is spot on on both points. as usual.

I thought QJs was a pretty strong hand. I guess calling the UTG raise shows weakness though?

You advocate not being results oriented and then are immediately results oriented.

It's not that you are showing weakness, it's that you have Q-high OOP and you're calling 5bb from a 75bb stack.

Generally if you hit, you get a Q- or J- high flop, but will be dominated if money goes in. Being OOP, it's harder to extract with our rare monsters and harder to exert pressure when we flop draws.

You want position or deeper stacks to call here.

As played, it's fine. You sadly got coolered.

Given your SPR, your shove can get weaker hands to call like TPTK, OESD. Not sure if if TPGK would call it off, I would like to say so.

was shoving correct? rhetorical question or what. You made it 80 and you barely doubled the bet with your all in. Wet board, its not like you have top 2 on 96x

PF is a bit loose. As indicated, you need to think of where (and how) you are going to get your value from when you do hit. And in reality you need to hit pretty hard just to feel comfortable going after value.

Was c/r the right play ... yes for sure with your remaining stack size. Why wait to donk it in there on the Turn? Get it in there now. You will also notice that I didn't call it a shove either .. I called it a c/r.

You have made this play OOP and hit it pretty hard and need to get your value/charge your opponent. What are you going to do on the Turn and River? You need to donk out and if your opponent has missed, then you get nothing more in most cases while exposing yourself OOP.

Lots of folks will say ... Hey, I got 3 to 1 PF with decent cards. But are you even a 25% favorite against the other ranges of cards? You aren't up against 'random' hands. You are probably up against ranges of hands that include your cards. This makes it harder to hit the Flop and exposes you to being dominated if you do hit 'partially'.

Is QJs junk? No, but I think I want to play it 'cheaper' or when I'm a little deeper stacked so I don't feel as committed post-Flop. What were you going to do with a QT6r Flop facing a $85 bet? Shove and he shows you AQ? Same result. It may be less 'probable' to happen since you share cards, but IMO it's more likely to happen when you get called down.

Your opponents play isn't much better here and he really can't count on both of his cards being live (although he did pick up 4 tens on the Flop to counteract the probable loss of 3 others). But once he c-bets it does make it pretty 'emotionally' hard not to call it off. GL

good analysis people and the right conclusions were drawn.
as always more to think about than what first pops into your mind when looking at what looks like two good cards.

Agreed.

Thank you all for the responses. You've given me much more to analyze and think about.