Folding QQ preflop to a 56BB shove?

Folding QQ preflop to a 56BB shove?

2/3/5 NL with mandatory $10 straddle under the gun, 8 handed, ($7 drop)

I've been at the game for 2hrs and am one of the tighter players at the table, but have also been a bit card dead, so really not playing many hands.
I am in seat 1, and a new player with sunglasses is in seat 8. In his 40's, middle eastern maybe... dark hair under a baseball cap, not talking. He's been around a few orbits, but I haven't been very observant of him. He's done a good amount of limping, and is loose, has been in a lot of pots. My sense is he is generally passive, but I don't have much more of a read on him.

The V above opens to $30 in LJ .
I am in the HJ with QQ and make it $100.
Folds back to V who shoves all-in for a total of $560. I cover him.

I tank for a while. I don't think I've folded QQ heads-up preflop before. Player to my left has been showing his cards to me, and wants to see my hand, so I show him.
After I fold, my neighbor says "You were good, he is tilting." I wasn't watching the last couple hands, so I don't know.

But I have been pretty quiet at the table, so for V to come back over the top of my 3-bet, he seemed pretty strong.

To call $460 for a pot $673, I need 40.6% equity (460/1133).

QQ has 40.2% equity vs a V range of QQ+, AK+.
QQ has 47.4% equity vs a V range of JJ+, AK+.

I folded. Despite my neighbor's comments after the hand, I felt good about my fold. Honestly, in all my previous poker history, I call in this situation. But today I folded.

What do you guys think?

05 June 2025 at 11:19 PM
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5 Replies


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This is snap call
100bb or less is easy preflop get the money in with ak+/qq+.

If you worry about 100bb or less with premiums, then you aren't rolled for the game it seems.

200bb or more we start thinking other stuff.


Super easy call. Your own numbers show your breakeven vs a completely nutted range of QQ+ and AK.

He could show up with a lot of garbage, you need way more volume of play against someone to put them on such a tight range. His player profile doesn't fit such an assessment either.


Damn...maybe I messed up.
I'm not underolled, I just obsessively care about my win rate.

This is an example of why I don't like these mandatory straddle games, which are an exception in my cardroom. Typically there are nine $2(B)/$3(SB)/$5(BB) games running, and a recent introduction is that one of these games will be a mandatory $10 straddle. However, the max buy-in remains $800. So I am much more accustomed to the bigger stack depth of the usual 2/3/5 game.

In this situation, I just felt like V wouldn't 4-bet jam on me lightly since I had been playing pretty tight for a couple hours. However, this guy had only been there a few orbits. And most of the time when I see a play like this, it's AK+, QQ+ unless the guy is tilted or way over aggressive. I also regret showing my hand to my left side neighbor. An orbit or so later, I opened in LP with AdJd. The neighbor 3-bet me 5x my open size. The pro to his left 4-bet. I folded. Then, my neighbor open folded 7d2d. I don't need to invite aggression from players to my left.


by OGfromOCC

2/3/5 NL with mandatory $10 straddle under the gun, 8 handed, ($7 drop)I've been at the game for 2hrs and am one of the tighter players at the table, but have also been a bit card dead, so really not playing many hands.I am in seat 1, and a new player with sunglasses is in seat 8. In his 40's, middle eastern maybe... dark hair under a baseball cap, not talking. He's been aroun

My first thought is we probably don't need to 3B to 100 over his 30 open when we're next to act. We could go 90. I don't hate the 100 size if the table is splashy, or if we have a read that V will flat call too wide, but otherwise, 90 seems pretty standard, and leaves us with a smidge more SPR on later streets.

My second thought is that most low-stakes recs don't have much of a 4B range beyond AA/KK and AK as their "bluff". It can vary with the stack depth, though. Here, at 2/3/5/10, he's jamming for 56 straddles, which in theory means he could be wider than that, but still, it's low stakes, and $560 might be "a lot of money" in real terms.

Third thought - your read is that he's passive, but he's 4B'ing. That's usually going to be a stronger range.

Fourth - this QQ vs what may be AK all in pre-flop situation comes up pretty frequently. My personal feeling is I'd almost rather have AK, because we block AA and KK, whereas with QQ, we could be a 20% dog vs AA/KK, or just a slight favorite against AK. As much as I hate folding QQ in theory, in practice, I don't feel too bad doing it in spots like this. The times a guy has shown JJ or AK don't outnumber the times the guy shows AA/KK or just mucks in frustration that we didn't call.

Your neighbor saying V is tilting - take it with a grain of salt. Your neighbor could be an idiot, or simply wrong, or V might actually have AA/KK.

All due respect to the guys saying this is a snap call - I'd prefer to have a bit more of a read before making what could easily be a hasty call for over 100bb's. If V is pushing with a sub-standard hand, he's likely to keep doing it, and we'll get his money eventually, if we're patient.


Pretty much calling all day. Won’t be shocked to run into AA/KK but surely a +EV call.

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