JJ in late position Hand Help
 

$10 rebuy after the break. I'm second in chips at the table with around $36,000, in the cut off with pocket jacks. My pre-flop raises have been respected and I've won all or almost all of my showdowns. Blinds are $600/$1200
and EP has raised to $4200, a standard raise for this table. folded to me and I call; all others fold.

flop is Q 7 2 rainbow;

I check, he bets $4200, which must be about half the pot. I have him covered by about $7,000. I check-raise all in- he thinks and calls with QJ.

I'm debating about whether I should have 1) re-raised pre-flop either to $10,000 or all in? or 2) folded pre-flop or 3) bet the flop to see where I was at or 4) folded to his flop bet. (and I'm wondering why he raised in EP with QJo, and called my check raise when I could have had Q with a better kicker or kings or aces or a set of sevens or deuces).

Re: JJ in late position Hand Help
 

I'm assuming you were in the blinds.

I don't like your call preflop, I don't like to play with JJ without position. So about 70% of the time I go all in here, and about 30% of the time I raise to 14k or so.

Re: JJ in late position Hand Help
 

No I was in late position- next to the button in the cut-off.

Re: JJ in late position Hand Help
 

how many chips did he have? What was his table image? How could you check if he was 1st to act on the flop?

Re: JJ in late position Hand Help
 

1) I don't like reraising w/ JJ preflop. It's not that stellar of a hand anyway, especially against a strong early raiser. If you knew him to raise with junk, then reraise.

2) Against a strong player who raises strong preflop, I'm usually folding JJ in late position. If there is a caller or two, or I suspect the raiser will gladly raise w/ AT or less or 99 or less, then I'll throw in a call. You don't really lose much by just ditching it every time to an early raiser. If the pot is multiway, it may be a different story since you may bust a player with a big pair or something if you flop a set to the hand.

3) Once you call and see this flop out of position, I really prefer to bet this flop and see where you are in the hand. It's probably your only and cheapest way to win the pot. If you were not planning on betting this kind of flop, you should not have called to begin with preflop. If I bet and get raised, I fold. If I get called, I'm probably shutting down on the turn.

4) Checking the flop isn't that bad if you are a solid and aggressive player. There is no need to push though, as you have almost no hope of driving out the hands that you're worried about. If he's prone to make a continuation bet when he misses the flop, check and raise him to $10,000 straight - this accomplishes the same goal as check-push: A hand like AK or TT will drop the hand and you extracted an extra bet; A hand that beast you will call or push and you can get away from the hand with $21,800 left instead of $7,000 which is too little to be competative.

The check-push really makes no sense unless he will raise early with KQ or QJ (which did occur) and will ditch the hand to such a play. He's clearly a weak player and you should have recognized this. Don't try this type of play unless you are almost certain it will work. The risk-reward ratio simply sux.

Re: JJ in late position Hand Help
 

Not the best senario. I have seen good players call in similar situations. I like the re raise even still pre flop with jj though, because preflop is where this hand is at its strongest usually. Having called though there is nothing wrong with the play u made. He set u up well.
dR