Queens against the other chip leader

[45suited]

This situation has come up a couple times recently. I'm in good chip position with eight players left. UTG player appears to be a good TAG. We both have around t1800 with blinds at 15-30, so I'd like to avoid a pissing contest with him...

UTG (t1800) raises to t90
UTG +1 (HERO) (t1800) has QhQs

5 shorter stacks in between us and the BB, who has T1400. So between the 3 of us, we have 5000 of the 8000 chips in play.

My thinking here is that UTG is a good player and his raise represents a real hand. I'd like to avoid a huge pot (pre-flop) with him, but if I just call, I'm giving almost 4:1 for the BB to also call. If the hand was just the two of us, I could call and see if an A or K comes. Obviously, I'd like to re-raise but I really don't want to invite a pre-flop push from UTG. Even if he has AK, there's really no need for us to go to war at this point with our chip positions.

I feel that a re-raise is mandatory to avoid giving proper calling odds to BB. Does popping it to 250 sound about right? And if UTG re-raises all-in, would you ever lay this down or would that just be weak?

Any thoughts would be appreciated...

[Bigwig]

Calling is certainly NOT a bad play. However, all of the fears you expressed in this hand are also felt by the original raiser. And YOU have position. I reraise preflop and further define my hand.

BTW, if he's tight-aggressive, a solid reraise may very well push him off AK.

[HighestCard]

I would do a raise to 200, giving him the chance to call, probably with Ace X. Your golden if the flop comes with no ace or king, and you can play accordingly and milk for money. If there is an ace, its a good time to back off. If there is just a king, your in a tough position, because his call pf would probably dictate just an ace, but could have AK or a king making trouble...

If he re-raises pf, i would push.

[45suited]

[ QUOTE ]
I would do a raise to 200, giving him the chance to call, probably with Ace X. Your golden if the flop comes with no ace or king, and you can play accordingly and milk for money. If there is an ace, its a good time to back off. If there is just a king, your in a tough position, because his call pf would probably dictate just an ace, but could have AK or a king making trouble...

If he re-raises pf, i would push.

[/ QUOTE ]

See, I don't really think this guy (appears to be good) is raising UTG with Ax. Plus, if I re-raise to 200 and he re-raises (without pushing), that is almost more scary than him just pushing. I mean, if I re-raise to 200 and then he raises to 400, that's almost like, "please push all-in cuz I have aces or kings." I'm giving this guy credit for not being a moron.

And remember, I am trying to avoid a huge pot pre-flop with the guy....

[Bigwig]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I would do a raise to 200, giving him the chance to call, probably with Ace X. Your golden if the flop comes with no ace or king, and you can play accordingly and milk for money. If there is an ace, its a good time to back off. If there is just a king, your in a tough position, because his call pf would probably dictate just an ace, but could have AK or a king making trouble...

If he re-raises pf, i would push.

[/ QUOTE ]

See, I don't really think this guy (appears to be good) is raising UTG with Ax. Plus, if I re-raise to 200 and he re-raises (without pushing), that is almost more scary than him just pushing. I mean, if I re-raise to 200 and then he raises to 400, that's almost like, "please push all-in cuz I have aces or kings." I'm giving this guy credit for not being a moron.

And remember, I am trying to avoid a huge pot pre-flop with the guy....

[/ QUOTE ]

If he reraises you, fold or play for set value.

Remember, he's got the same worries about you. "Wow, this guy who has position and an equal chip stack reraised me. He must have a powerful hand." He's going to throw away quite a few hands here. It works both ways. By flat calling, however, you might be facing a big multi-way pot. You also have less information on the raisers hand, and if the flop comes T high, you could lose MORE chips to AA or KK than you would have with a reraise preflop.

Nevertheless, calling with QQ is NOT a bad play. However, given the nature of one table SNG's, I think reraising is optimal.

[HighestCard]

[ QUOTE ]
I mean, if I re-raise to 200 and then he raises to 400, that's almost like, "please push all-in cuz I have aces or kings." I'm giving this guy credit for not being a moron.

[/ QUOTE ]

That is true, but remember he is in the same position of probably not wanting to loose all of his chips to you, so im doubting the re-raise. But i should recend my statement of push if he raises, I would still bet 200, but if he does min-reraise a call would be in order.

[45suited]

[ QUOTE ]
Remember, he's got the same worries about you. "Wow, this guy who has position and an equal chip stack reraised me. He must have a powerful hand." He's going to throw away quite a few hands here. It works both ways. By flat calling, however, you might be facing a big multi-way pot. You also have less information on the raisers hand, and if the flop comes T high, you could lose MORE chips to AA or KK than you would have with a reraise preflop.

[/ QUOTE ]

I like your reasoning. I half expected someone to flame me with, "you've got queens wuss" or something like that. I want to raise to keep the pot from getting multi-way, but not so much that I'm pot committed pre-flop against the other chip leader.

The first time that this came up the other day, I flat called but when the flop came 7-9-J, it had given BB a double gut shot with KTs, he bet, UTG folded (no doubt AK), I came over the top and he decided to gamble it up. You know the rest of the story without me telling you...

But I wanted it to be a learning experience for the future. In the future, I think an isolation raise is mandatory (plus it gains info on UTG's hand). Thanks for your advice.