I was in Vegas recently, and this time I played a lot more craps and blackjack than poker. But, as usual, some things went well, others poorly. The two hands where I had QQ went rather poorly, unfortunately.
The first hand was in 2/5 no-limit. I was sitting in the big blind with about $600 behind, when four players limped in. I had QQ in the big blind, and I raised to $35. The button and small blind were the only callers, both of whom had me covered. The flop was T73 with two hearts, and the small blind checked. I bet $60, getting a fold from the button, but a call from the small blind. The turn was an offsuit 6. The small blind checked again, and I bet $125, which got another call. The river was a 6h, completing the flush draw, and the small blind suddenly bet $400, enough to put me all-in. I couldn’t really call here, since I couldn’t imagine what he would value bet with that I could beat, nor could I come up with any hands that he would call two streets with and then bluff the river. Unless he went crazy and turned a hand like JT or T9 into a bluff, I thought he must have at least had a big flush on the river, so I folded. I feel pretty good about that fold, but it still hurts to put in over $200 into a hand and then be forced to fold.
The second hand was in 1/2 no-limit, since no 2/5 tables were open at the time. UTG limped, and I was UTG+1 with QQ and raised to $10. A guy in middle position called, as did the big blind, and the original limper folded. The flop was 6s4h2h, and the big blind checked. I bet $20, and only the big blind called. The turn was the Js, and the big blind checked again. I followed that with a $50 bet, which got another call from the big blind. The river was the 9s, and the big blind bet $100. This looked too much like a busted heart flush draw that I had to call, and he turned over… 8s7s. A backdoor flush. He called the flop with nothing but a backdoor flush draw and an inside straight draw. Well, I definitely wasn’t expecting to see that hand.
Despite those setbacks, I was down only about one buy-in at the end, so the end result wasn’t too bad. Next time, I will get my revenge!