LHE:Preflop:QQ

Much is said about the anguish players experience deciding how to play pocket jacks preflop. Pocket queens get relatively less attention, although they suffer the same disadvantage as jacks: they constitute a tremendous starting hand that demands a preflop raise, yet one that can quickly and easily become dominated after the flop.

As with aces or kings, QQ simply must be raised preflop, with the same purposes. Hopefully, the raise clears out weak aces and kings, and isolates the holder against lower pocket pairs, big cards, and drawing hands. A preflop re-raise from a tight opponent should send up a red flag to the holder, as such a player probably is unlikely to do so without AA, KK, or AK.

Discussion threads

 * Afraid I'm becoming weak-tight (QQ, a blind steal, and folding AA) - (2+2, July 2005) - more interesting for the postflop decisions but easy to file it here until we get LHE:Flop built up a bit more.