200NL Prima 6max

Villain has position and 40/26. He's very aggressive but also goint to WAY too many showdowns. He's all over the map.

I have Q[h] Q[d] and raise the CO to 8. Villain min raises me to 16. I call. He has $240 and I cover.

Flop ($32) Q[s] 8[s] 7[h]. I lead 16, he min raises, I push.

He folded. They seem to fold here ALOT when I 3 bet. Am I just unlucky or is there a better way?

T

I would lead for more, say $26 - $30, but there's no real other way to play this. You're either stacking him on AA/KK/77/88 on the flop or you're not - or he's drawing to the flush with AKs or AJs and if you call you're kinda screwing yourself, esp OOP.

I agree with Roy, you should lead much harder, if not only to get more money in but also make the push more proportional to the pot.

I personally think at these stakes a lower pushes look much more like "I have it and am afraid/don't know how to play it" than a bluff and usually like 3-betting rather than pushing, but if you're just getting no action there's not much you can do OOP on a board like this.

i think my default would be to lead for closer to pot, flat-call the raise. lead a non-spade turn for 2/3 pot.

you extract a lot more when he has Q-x. your line will look fishy and he may pay off with JJ/TT. and you make it look like your hand needs protection from the draw-laden board.

jon

As to the CB/lead, I can really go either somewhat bigger, like $24 or even somewhat smaller to tempt him to raise harder (like $12). Against an aggro opponent I think I prefer the $24 line here. I'd like to look rather like AQ or maybe KK. But I don't really mind the $16 either.

After that, the mini-raise makes things a little difficult here, I think. We went through this on a recent hand of ice's where he pointed out that a reasonable bet is no different from a push, because you're then both pot-committed. That's definitely true, although I feel like psychologically you can get a call, or better, a raise, if you fire $100 or so rather than full stack at this guy.

That's what I would have done anyway. It amounts to a push anyway. If the flush hits the turn, you then have a pot of $230, and I'd still bet into any flush or straight that might hit.