How do you play this? I will use dollars to describe the hand.

Hand 1:

UTG(~$200): raises to $20. (He has been playing loose for a while kind of on tilt)

I have 150BB ($300) and have QQ at mid position.
I raise to $50 total.

BB(~$200, he used to be a professional player, I knew he read me as a nit, and thought he was trying to take his chances on beating my big hand): calls.
UTG: calls.
Flop comes small cards like 6 2 4(I dont remember exactly but they were meaningless here)

BB: checks
UTG: bets $30
I raise to $100.
BB: raises all in.
UTG: calls.
I tank, thinking BB could have been on a semi-bluff with mid-pockets and call since I felt committed to the pot.

BB shows pocket aces and ships it all.

Why did he not raise pre-flop?
He didn't explain to me why he did not raise pre-flop, but later on I asked him to give me some knowledge on that hand (he was a pretty nice guy) and he told me that in this game, check/raise means you are beat. I already knew that, but I thought that since he was a pro, he wouldn't be so obvious. I thought maybe he was valuing his hand, thinking I missed my AK. But how would you explain him only calling pre-flop? I know I played wrong, but asides from overvaluing QQ, what did I do wrong?

Hand 2:

I am on the BB with QQ and around $450.
Villain is MP sitting on $300 that he just bought in. I had played with him before and he is a recreational player. My read was that he was a big nit who would not fold big hands.

Pot checks to me on the BB with 3 limpers.
I raise to $20.
Villain calls.
Flop comes low cards, no ace no king, same thing as last hand.
I bet $35.
Villain calls.
Turn comes nothing.
I bet $70.
Villain goes all in.
I call.
Villain had aces.

Why did he not raise his aces pre-flop?

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In the same day as last hand, I saw a lady shipping $300 by doing the same thing on another dude. Limping with aces pre-flop.

By the way, table had a lot of limpers both times. I once raised $17 and had 5 callers, had to trash my jacks for that reason. And that is why I was raising so much pre-flop there.

Explain to me, what could I have done to prevent this? Do you think they played right? And how would you play? Thanks.


Needless to say, I have been playing QQ pretty scared lately.

Hand 1: if he sees you as nitty he puts you on a premium hand. if he comes over the top again PF, you might fold most hands and only play on with KK+ (or even AA only)

hnad 2: you say he is BIG NIT, then you have to slow down eventually. Big nits dont call down with A-high.

Hand 1 you should have folded. The way that was played, it could have been a set or a higher pocket pair. Not a good spot to go broke. In hand 2, I don't think that you necessarily did anything wrong and I would have probably played it the same way. You have to be ok with villain's making nonstandard plays. It will happen occasionally. I think that the call in hand 2 was fine.

1) pay attention to stacks. You're raising to $100 on the flop when effective stacks are $150. Is he ever folding to a shove but not to your bet? Is he ever going to think he has fold equity if he shoves on you with worse?

As to why he didn't reraise pre, he has a ridiculously low number of scary boards and a pot sized bet left. He doesn't need to, the only risk is that an underpair that might have folded to a 4b pre hits a set

2) ridiculous call on the turn. You've read he's a supposed nit, what do you think you beat? You say why didn't he raise, maybe he thinks you'll do all the betting for him, and read him as a nit and might fold if he shows strength

NEVER fold hand 1 at this point in the hand. It's $50 to win $550. You're getting 11-1, that's not far off from the right price to spike a 2 outer against a set or an overpair and there's a chance you aren't up against either of those.

No offense to Osirus or Xmars but you should never fold QQ at this point when you're getting 11-1.

Also you shouldn't be at that point anyway as when you went for your initial flop raise you should have just jammed for the rest of effective stacks right there.

they dont raise pre flop with aces because you go broke everytime with a big pair.
in these small games not many are check raising to get all in if they cant beat qq.

a pro player calls 50 cold in 1,2 and you expect qq to be good after he check raises on the flop.?

your after the flop play for all your money needs revisiting.

Thank you guys. I appreciate all of you insight. Looking at this from a different perspective, should I just sit down at these 1/2NL tables and set mine instead of waiting for big hands like these?

But how come when I flat call aces on the flop, I never get to ship all of people's chips? What am I missing here? How do I have to come off, nit or losse, in order to be able to take all when people get their QQ and I get aces?

Assuming villain is somewhat observant, he wont stack off QQ against a nit that is playing only premiums + sets

You shouldn't try to wn big pots with over pairs. Over pairs are only worth two streets of value against decent opponents. You will make big money from over pairs only when all the money goes in preflop and you have the equity edge.

That's not entirely true Osirus.

You need to watch your opponents, how they play, the lines they take. If you're up against a total spewtard fish you'll often want to stack off with an overpair post flop sometimes even when a bit deep.

If you're up against an OMC nit and he check raises you on the flop you'll want to dump your overpair right away even if you are less than 100 bb's deep.

It's about opponent tendencies and effective stack size.

Well there are opponents you don't want to stack off against with over pairs there are others you'll be very happy to do so against. You've got to know which is which.

Both you and OP are playing live $1/$2, unless you're playing some of the worst $1/$2 games in the country you should see plenty of players in your games that you'd be more than happy to stack off against with an overpair, even post flop.

most players dont get broke with qq. so that is why you dont get to double up with aces. with aces you sell them for what it is worth. when you double up with them it is a bonus.
and you must learn when to get rid of them so you dont get broke with the aces. and certainly hardly ever with qq

bet/fold and take better lines more applicable to opp. tendencies while being balanced yourself
In second hand do you really think villain is going to raise you with his bluff range or make a raise/fold/thin value raise on the turn with his marginal range to try to get you to call with worse when a blank comes and it likely didn't improve his bluff or marginal ranges?

Now that i've learned in general at micro's and small stakes online and LLSNL hero folds > hero calls. The more you hero fold the more you will make in the long run, trust me let the fish hero call because they can't fold top pair. You exploit opp. by consistently folding when they have you beat thats how you make money, i may be hero call once or twice a session but mostly hero folds (its not uncommon to fold tptk in live) why take marginal spots when you can wait for 2pair or a set and allow your opp. to hero call/value own himself you let your opp. take marginal spots by hero calling too much (take a good line tho and know how to adjust)

You should only really be hero-calling OTR in general most villains tend to bluff otr more then flop + turn based on my experience or they might bluff OTT > OTR in which you can go for a x-raise OTT