Playing QQ from UTG in the Orange Zone!
 

About halfway through the second hour of yesterdays Party $350k Guaranteed. Blinds are 50/100 and my stack is around 1250, giving me an M of 8.3. I see QQ and open for 3xBB. Good? Should I have pushed?

Button and BB calls and flop comes A, 3, 4 two-tone. What's my plan? 950 chips left and both opponents have me covered.

Re: Playing QQ from UTG in the Orange Zone!
 

I think I like leading out 1/4 of your stack the least of the 3 options of limping, betting, or pushing.

Anyway, what are the reads of the two villains? How much do they have you covered by? Will they only call this all-in with a big ace, or will any AX combination be just fine?

Re: Playing QQ from UTG in the Orange Zone!
 

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Anyway, what are the reads of the two villains? How much do they have you covered by? Will they only call this all-in with a big ace, or will any AX combination be just fine?

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Sorry, should've included reads... Can't say I have any reads since I recently got moved. Hadn't been at the table for a single orbit yet. Button has ~3700 and BB ~2500.

Re: Playing QQ from UTG in the Orange Zone!
 

With QQ and your chip stack -

A lot would depend on how the table was playing. If I thought there was aggression behind me then I limp and hope for a raise behind me so that I could push. I don't mind pushing all-in here if I thought it was going to get called. If I didn't raise all-in or limp, then I think that I would raise pretty strong, enough to commit me to the flop regardless.

In your case, I don't know, you're kind of screwed either way with that flop. You don't have a drawing hand and if someone has an ace, then you're way behind and you still have enough money to get away from it. I don't think you fold an AJ or AT with an all-in bet if they didnt fold before the flop. I would probably check here and if no one bet, then I would push the turn to anything lower than a Q.

Re: Playing QQ from UTG in the Orange Zone!
 

So, you'd say a 5xBB raise would be better then? Putting 500 i the middle leaves me with 750 and I'm pretty much pot committed. That'll tell my opponents I'm serious about this hand. Sounds like a good move...

What if my stack was slightly smaller? Say 900. That's an immediate push, right?

Re: Playing QQ from UTG in the Orange Zone!
 

I think my first choice at an aggressive table would be to limp and re-raise. The one thing I hate about raising half of my stack is that I'm committing myself, but not commiting the other callers, but I still like it better than just raising enough that I can get away from the hand. If I thought that there was a stack big enough and loose enough to call an all-in, then I would prefer that to raising 5x or 6x. My last choice would probably be the 5x or 6x raise, but I still like that better than the 3x raise. That's just my line on it. I would want to play for all my chips with this hand and maximize the pot I won with it.

Re: Playing QQ from UTG in the Orange Zone!
 

i beleive in HOH2 the orange zone you need to push high pairs harder.

The raise of 3xbb was not enough.
it left you 950 chips 76% of your starting stack. but now your in the red zone and the next time you get qq its all in. so when your borderline red zone you should have pushed harder. 5xbb would have been better. but then your are pot comitted so just go all in.

Re: Playing QQ from UTG in the Orange Zone!
 

I would have pushed pre-flop, especially because I don't want to play this hand out of position and I'm happy to pick up the blinds. Sadly, with this flop I'd probably go into check-fold mode. It's quite possible that your opponents have smaller pocket pairs than you, but it's more likely one of them has an A they're willing to call with.