Me and Stuart have been discussing these hands a lot recently and trying to figure out the best way to play them. I think Stuart possibly gave too much information and gave the impression it was one specific hand that he wanted analysing. It wasn"t.
Like he said it"s a concept question regardless of stacks, blinds, player characteristics etc. sometimes you can do too much analysing on a hand and forget that it"s a simple case of jacks or queens against the rest of the world.... who wins?? We"re amateurs, there"s no need to overcomplicate everything.
The main point is that someone has already raised and you now have to decide whether to fold, call or raise.
If you fold then you"re out of it nice and safe but you"ve maybe wasted a premium hand. Bad idea IMO
If you raise you"re only going to get called by a monster (usually) so you won"t know where you are after the flop, maybe an over pair? If they fold you have maybe not maximised the profit you could have made. If they push you have committed more chips than necessary in to a hand that you probably have to lay down.
If you call at least it"s your oponent who doesn"t know where they are after the flop because they could put you a bigger range. I would probably put them on a decent ace or any pair for the 3 x raise, including premium pairs (comments welcome). With a low flop if they are on an ace with a kicker your push should see them fold. The only hands you are going to lose to are an over pair or trips. There is also the possibility of you hitting trips yourself which would be nice
So simply speaking, a pre flop call means that the only hands beating you with an undercard board are an over pair or a lucky set which are not too many hands. Pre flop there are many more hands that either beat or equal you (percentage wise). I guess it"s all about getting rid of the possibility of overcards pairing and beating you for a big pot.
So what we want to know is GENERALLY SPEAKING what are you looking to do with JJ or QQ (even KK I suppose) following a 3 x raise? - fold, call, reraise or push?? Everyone must have done all of these many times in the past and have noticed one working out better over the months / years so which is it for you??