DECISION POINT: In a 6-handed $5/$10 cash game the Hijack limps and you raise to $50 from the Cutoff with Q♠Q♣. The Button and Small Blind fold, the Big Blind calls, and the Hijack folds. The Big Blind (who you’ve observed as being loose and aggressive) checks the 7♣7♠T♠ flop, you bet $75 and get called. On the A♠ turn the Big Blind bets $265 and action is on you. What do you do here?

PRO ANSWER: We are playing a $5/$10 cash game 6-handed and we have few reads on the table, except for the Big Blind who has been playing quite loose and aggressive. We are dealt black queens in the Cutoff and it folds to the Hijack player who open limps. Our hand is far too strong to call in this spot and play a multiway pot so we make an isolation raise to $50. The Button and Small Blind fold, the Big Blind cold calls, and the original limper folds.

The flop is 7c7sTs and the Big Blind checks. With the knowledge that our opponent is quite loose and aggressive, 7x combos are definitely a part of their range in this spot. However, they also have several other combos of hands in their range that we beat. This flop is somewhat coordinated, even for a paired board. We have the Qs which adds some backdoor equity when we’re behind and also blocks some flush draws such as QJs/KQs/Q9s that are potentially in Villain’s range.

Our hand is far too strong to check here and the main question is what bet-sizing we should use. Using a larger sizing here versus an aggressive player can put us in some really tough situations later in the hand as stacks get shallower, and absent a queen coming on the turn we rarely have a hand we’re just super comfortable stacking off with.

A smaller sizing will likely get many of those weaker hands with some equity to call and sets up future streets a bit better. Many players make the mistake of overvaluing equity denial however, and in the moment we elect to make a larger bet to $75 and the Big Blind calls.

The turn is the As and much to our surprise the Big Blind bets full pot ($265). This card tends to hit our range better even though it does complete a potential flush draw. Often from a psychological standpoint for our opponent this full pot bet-sizing means one of two scenarios.

In the first scenario the Big Blind has a very strong hand that might still be vulnerable to a 4th spade and is afraid that we might check it back. In the second scenario they have a hand that would benefit from some fold equity that might be a semi-bluff such as KsTx/JsTx (plus some Tx) and fear being faced with a difficult decision if you bet. This is a situation where the Big Blind has a polarized range and most of the hands they can have are either way ahead or way behind us.

Against a polarized range our hand benefits from keeping in the bluffs since we beat very few of the Big Blind’s strong hands, although we likely have outs against them. Often players want to instinctively raise here to get the hand over with now and avoid a tough river decision, but keeping our opponent’s range wide is much better.

Calling is the best play.