Home cash game - how could I have done this differently

[RHCNNN]

Okay, I was playing a cash home game with friends, $10 buy ins. It is a loose-ish agressive bunch of guys, and I played pretty tight, ending up $10 up after buying in twice.
So right before the end of the night I get dealt QQ on the button, and we have 4 people calling the big blind (.50). So i raise $2.
This guy who has been playing extremely loose (I mean calling all the way to the river with Ace high at least twice, and calling/sometimes raising all the way to the river with second pair and stuff a lot) raises another 2. For some reason I think he's got two face cards, and maybe 2 jacks and best. There was no solid reason for me to believe this, I did though because it seemed to me like his interpretation of a good hand was a little off, so i put him on two faces, like maybe KJ.
I went all in for like $25, and he calls with KK.
His kings held up and i lost.

If I would have just called his reraise I think I still would have went going all in because the flop and turn were all low cards with no flushes or straights, and jsut a jack on the river.

If I had indeed just called, and seen a garbage flop how might I have been able to avoid losing all my money with this hand?

Any suggestions on how I might have played this better would be appreciated. Afterwards I felt like I should have maybe just folded the Qs. Because I mean for I can fold and lose $2, keeping my remaining money for sure, as opposed to risking all of my money in a cash game before the flop when anything can come on the board...
I dunno... words of wisdom anyone?

[dalecooper]

This is a very tough situation. And it perfectly illustrates the advantages of having a loose/aggressive table image. People start wanting a piece of you and will pay off your good hands.

As far as how you could have played it differently, I'm not sure what to tell you. One possibility would be to observe this guy and see if his looseness manifests differently when he's calling vs. raising. Calling down with a bad hand or raising a bit with a middle pair is one thing; re-raising pre-flop for a couple bucks is something else. Watch and see just how often he raises, and specifically RE-raises, pre-flop. It may be that this guy is generally a loose/aggressive player who specifically re-raises pre-flop like all the rest of us do, with aces and kings. In which case, you know to fold... or minimize your losses by just calling to take a flop, and not jamming all your money in the pot as quickly as possible.

As for your question about if this might have played differently once cards hit the board, I'm inclined to say probably not. Your assessment sounds right to me. It's very hard to lay down an overpair in this situation. That's something you just have to learn to sniff out, whether against this player or any other. It seems like a fourth of the time when I see someone bust out, it's queens vs kings, jacks vs kings, what have you. Very hard hands to fold. Sometimes you will simply lose money on them. One trick is to start realizing when you MIGHT be beat, and even if you can't convince yourself to let the hand go, just stop raising... call it down and see what happens as cheaply as possible.

[Sed]

Sounds like the type of guy that you want when you have queens. I'm not sure I would have played it any differently.

If you'ld called, a potsized bet which he raised big might raise some flags but I would have a hard time sniffing that out with the types of hands he plays...

- sed

[Sed]

Dale said what was too lazy to get to. Betting patterns are very important to pay attention to especially with Laggy players. A tight player betting like that, I'd get out of the way since it would be a coinflip at best.

There could be some important clues in the strength of his raises.

When he was raising with mid-pairs had everyone limped in?
When he was calling down with A-high was it cheap relatively? (great advertiesment value)
When (and how much) does he raise preflop?
Will he raise any of the crap hands he showdowns or only quality ones?

Paying attention to these little bits of info become even more important when you are dealing with a Lagg.

- sed

[LeFou]

This guy who has been playing extremely loose (I mean calling all the way to the river with Ace high at least twice, and calling/sometimes raising all the way to the river with second pair and stuff a lot) raises another 2.

You need more than a "this guy is loose" kind of read. You need to know that he's definitely capable of a reraise PF without a premium pair. We can't advise you because we didn't see the guy in action, but your description is of a loose caller and that's different from the type of nutjob you go AI against with queens.

Does this mean fold queens? Nyet. With the loose caller who is not quite a plate of scrambled eggs, you call the reraise. The flop comes and if he bets big -- if he seems indifferent to the flop -- you can put him on aces. If he seems very interested in it, it's more likely to be AK (he's looking to pair) or KK (he's doesn't want an A popping up) -- could even be the other 2 Qs. Weirder stuff has happened.