Pocket Queens is a hand every poker player loves to see. In fact, it’s fairly easy to get your hand into the middle of the action with queens. Sure, you can take some flops with it, but simply raising your flush is going to take a lot of pots. What you really want is to get all your money in the middle before the action gets back to you. Queen is a great hand but sometimes it’s just not going to work out.
So many times you will see a player try to get a cheap flop with queens and they get called by somebody with a better kicker. As a direct result, you either fold your hand or you can pay to see the hand to try and get some information about the other players. As a general rule, you should fold queens against most opponents you encounter. Against some opponents, they may call quite happily on a flop of 6,7,8 or 10. Versus these players, your queens can be beaten at any price.
If you have a struggling hand, it may not hurt to try and see a cheap flop with queens. What I don’t recommend doing, though, is trying to make a hand. If you raise pre-flop and get a call from the cutoff or button, you are throwing money away. Either raise pre-flop or leave the hand the way it is, calling all the way to the river. Either way, you are losing money and showing weakness.
If you have a struggling hand and an opponent makes a bet on the flop, it’s probably best to let that one play pass you. Unless you pick up a very nice hand, there is no reason to start putting fear into your opponents’ minds with a low pair. Do not scare your opponents out of pots with a low pair.
The chances of getting a straight or a flush when playing cards like queen, seven, Ignoring the Ace, Jack or Ten of the same suit is just 19%, not the best odds in the world. Queen has the same odds as 7,8 for a straight. Queen is a little better than half the odds for the flush, but the odds of coming up with that straight or flush are so low that one should never risk it all on just a pair of 7s or Els.
The chances of getting a straight-flush, if playing domino88, can be very high. The chances of hitting two cards that are the same suit is only 9%, so you can expect to make a straight 13% of the time, and probably a flush 23% of the time. Let’s say you are in a game with four people and they each have one 9 and one 4. You are holding Q the 9 of spades and the 4 of spades. You have just the highest card, but everyone else has two of them. You have a bad chance of making a flush, but two cards a lot of people might think that you might have. Those two cards do not quite make up the hand, so you should not risk it all on them. If you are playing in a larger game and there are say five or six players, you might have a rough idea of what you have and be able to call for a raise, but in the lower buyin games, you are going to be called by a lot of people for a lot of hands, so you might not be in a position to make a flush.
As a quick guideline, in games where you can see the flop and it takes a bit of thinking on your part, you can call for a raise with queens against one to two other players. Against three other players, call for a raise three times the big blind. When you see the flop, make a continuation bet about three quarters of the pot size, especially if you have only a straight or flush draw. You want to do this to represent a strong hand. against two other players, you will want to bet about half the pot size.
Why Queen, Six, Four?
First, Queen is strong against anything lower than Queen – that is you are looking for an Ace or King to win the hand, or if you have a Queen and there is a King in the hand, you want either a high card or an Ace or King. Queen is strong against Queen, King, and Ace. Against 2 of the same cards, you will have a 50% chance of winning unless your opponent has the Jack.
Secondly, Six is good against pretty much anything – you have about a 70% chance of winning if there are no bigger cards to beat you. Six is strong against Ace, but weaker against King and Queen. Against 3 of the same cards, you will only win about 29% of the time.
