How to Play Pocket Queens in a Four-Way Pot
Here's another fun no-limit hold'em tournament hand in which I play a big pocket pair against multiple opponents.
With the blinds 75/150, a player in middle position raised to 400 and the hijack called. I looked down at Q♣Q♠ in the cutoff and reraised to just under 1,600. (Looking back I would have liked to have three-bet more, say around 2,000.)
The small blind cold-called, and the original raiser and player in the hijack both called as well, meaning there were four us in the hand to see the flop come 9♦3♦2♣.
Realistically I should only be behind pocket nines, threes, or twos, and so when it folded around to me I knew I wanted to bet, but I had to decide how much. I also needed to think about what I would do if I were to bet here and get raised — including if someone shoved all in over the top.
There was almost 6,500 in the middle and I had about 21,500 behind. I chose to bet 2,000, and the small blind responded by raising all in for almost 13,500. The other two players folded, and the action was back on me.
Take a look below to hear my thought process regarding the bet sizes in the hand as well as my flop decision, and see how things turned out:
As I explain in the video, I ultimately didn't have too difficult of a decision here — calling the shove was the choice to make. But it's still good to think through all decisions and understand why we make them.
Jonathan Little is a professional poker player and author with over $6,700,000 in live tournament earnings. He writes a weekly educational blog and hosts a podcast at JonathanLittlePoker.com. You can follow him on Twitter @JonathanLittle.
