Poker is a game where you prepare for the worst while hoping for the best. Sometimes, though, you’ll find yourself somewhere in between. This is the type of position that queen-jack offsuit can put you in when you’re playing online poker. These playing cards have too much potential to simply fold, but they’re not strong enough to be aggressive with.Â
As with most poker starting hands, there’s a fine line to walk between maximizing value and losing money. Keep on reading for a selection of online poker tips to help you get on the right side of the equation.
Understand Your Hand
Queen-jack has several nicknames. Apart from Quack, there’s Maverick, after a song involving jacks and queens in the popular television show of the same name. But the most telling name is Hawai’i — the idea is that if you don’t play this hand for a year, you’ll save enough money for a holiday in Honolulu. That’s because queen-jack — offsuit especially — has the potential to be a trap hand that can get you involved in costly situations. True, it’s a Broadway hand (a hand with the potential to make the strongest straight), but it can be dominated by stronger Broadway hands such as ace-queen, king-queen, ace-jack, or king-jack. It has nut potential, but again, not as much nut potential as the stronger Broadway playing cards. As a result, it’s a hand that you’ll be folding more often than you’ll play it. That said, it does have potential in specific situations, as described below.
Preflop
One reason it can be relaxing to play casino table games is that you’re playing against the house, not other players. As a result, it doesn’t matter where you’re sitting at the table. In fact, some live dealer casino games can have an unlimited number of players taking part in the same game. In poker, by contrast, a great deal depends on your position, especially when you’re holding queen-jack offsuit.
If the pot is unopened, the best course of action from the Lojack position or earlier is to fold, since queen-jack offsuit doesn’t have enough expected value (EV) to warrant a raise. In Hijack position, it’s okay to raise or fold, depending on your style. If you’re not sure, go with a fold. From cutoff through to the small blind, it’s always correct to raise when the action checks to you in an unopened pot.
If a player before you raises, the story changes. In line with the gap concept, your hand loses a lot of value, and you’re best off folding unless the raise is in Lojack position or later, and you’re in the big blind. In a full-ring game, the big blind can consider calling an open raise from under the gun instead of folding.
If you get 3-bet, it’s usually correct to fold. The exception to this rule is if you’re in the small blind and the big blind 3-bets your raise. In this situation, it’s considered wise to 4-bet a quarter of the time. The reason is that this enables you to maintain a polarized 4-betting range. This puts pressure on your opponent because they have to decide whether you have a very strong hand or a very weak hand.
When You Miss the Flop
A common situation with queen-jack offsuit is that you call preflop to defend your big blind against a preflop raiser. Suppose a player raises, and you defend your big blind with queen-jack offsuit. The flop comes, and you miss. You then check, and your opponent bets into you. If the flop has given you nothing to work with, it’s time to fold. But there are three scenarios where it’s worth it to play on.
Say the flop gives you an open-ended straight draw. If you see the turn and the river, your hand will develop into a straight approximately one-third of the time. The way to get there is sometimes to call your opponent’s bet and sometimes raise. Calling suggests that you have a bottom straight in your range while checking signals that you have a top straight in your range. You want to mix these two options up to keep your opponent guessing. Of course, you may have a specific reason (usually a read on your opponent) to favor one or the other approach.
Sometimes, you’ll find yourself with a backdoor flush draw and a backdoor straight draw at the same time. Say you’re holding Q♣, J♦ and the flop comes 10♣, 7♣, 2♠. Here, it’s possible that you could draw a flush in the suit of clubs or draw a high or low straight. On top of that, you have two overcards. With this kind of potential, you should definitely continue, mostly check-calling but sometimes check-raising too. This approach is also known as floating.
If the flop is monotone (all three cards are in the same suit), giving you a flush draw, it’s always correct to check-call to see the turn.
When You Hit the Flop
Sometimes, your queen-jack offsuit will connect with the flop and give you a pair, two pair, or even trips.
If you hit top pair, be careful. It’s always tempting to blaze away when you’re in position with top pair, but queens and jacks simply aren’t strong enough to carry three streets of value. To balance your range, you’ll want to check sometimes and bet sometimes. In most cases, if you check, you’ll be looking to bet on the turn and river. If you bet, you’ll be looking to check back on the turn and bet for value on the river.
If you hit second or third pair, it’s best to adopt a passive approach while protecting your hand.
In the best-case scenario, you’ll flop two pair or trips. Monsters like these don’t appear all that often, so you’ll want to maximize your value and start betting to build the pot right away.
Going All In
These tips are geared toward maximizing your value when you play cash games. When it comes to online poker tournaments, there’s another tip you can use to your advantage. Anyone who’s taken part in one knows that stack size is very important in online poker tournament strategy. In cash games, you can always buy more chips. But in a tournament, when your stack is done, you’re out. As a result, when you’re short-stacked, it’s correct to go all in preflop with a wider range of hands than it would make sense to do in a cash game. As a Broadway hand, queen-jack offsuit offers a great deal of value in such situations.
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