getting the most out of a set

what do players find is the best way to get the most money out of a set?

whenever i flop a hidden set I like to slow play it if I can - the trouble is I am wary of letting another player draw cheaply to a flush or straight and very often when one of the flop cards matches my pair, there is a possible draw out there. All too often I have slow played (ie not checking but making minimal bets and raises) only to lose to a flush or straight - often with four flush or straight cards falling on the board. It is a tough beat to take but I guess I bring it on myself for trying to slow play.

On the other hand if I have, say, a set of Js, I don't want to make a pot sized bet as I want to make other players think that they are winning with one pair or maybe two pair, or I want to give them a chance to improve slightly. If I bet the pot I may scare them out. I sometimes fall foul of this when I hold two pair - I think I'm winning until someone turns a hidden set which they have slow played.

What I am saying is that every time I flop a set, especially top set (because it is so rare), I want to maximise my chances of getting paid. Of course I accept that every so often I will lose to someone outdrawing me and that the best way to avoid this is to bet large as soon as a draw is possible, but that often means on the flop and subsequently end of hand. Check raising is also a useful tactic, but it usually means winning only one bet.

Any tips?

Also, how do you advise playing trips, ie pair on board which matches one in my hand? If there is a bet and I raise, I'm giving away that I have trips. If there is a bet and a call, a good player will wonder what I am calling with and will put me on the trips. Either way, it is usually the last action I get. Attempting to slow play or check raise doesn't seem to work.

really depends on the board... if its dangerous you have to bet it hard, but if it isnt dangerous you can slowplay a little

Routine slow play sucks. You're giving your opponent the maximum chance to suck-out and stack you while not taking his stack often enough in return.

Passive players slow play their medium-strong hands because they fail to give action on enough other hands to feel that opponents who probably play too many hands and take them too far will pay them off.

I'm aggressive, I get in there and gamble with bad players. One of the reasons I get away with this is that they fail to get maximum value out of me when they do have have me destroyed because they try to trap, fail to build pots, miss bets and even induce laydowns on the big streets.

Regularly thinking you "wasted a hand" is just poisonous.

Slowplaying is a tricky thing - helps to have position and a raised flop makes it a little easier too - as an example - just had a 55 set on a board of QT5 that was raised preflop with like 4-5 callers.
EP bets the pot on the flop...raiser folds - 1 limper prior to EP better had checked.
What does EP have? Depends on the player of course - not all that likely that he has KJ - probably just has the Q.
In this case, I was on the button so I flat called to slowplay (a little risky, and if I was in EP I would not have done this).
The player who checked the flop folded, so I'm relatively secure.
On the turn (a 3 - rainbow board) EP bets the pot again - like $4-5 at that point. He only had $4.50 left at that point, and I am now sure that he is on the Q (probably KQ or QT with that bet). I felt that he was pot committed so this is where I chose to go allin - and of course he called...river was a Q and I doubled up.

Just an example slowplay - not sure he's doing much more than calling reasonable bets if I raised much on the flop, so I am almost forced to slowplay to get max value. If other players had called before me on the button - no way I'm slowplaying any more - KJ/J9 has to pay to chase so I'm raising substantially - even if it takes the pot down right there I'm fine with it - I don't expect to double-up every time I hit a set.

So in general, as Fnord said - don't slowplay - at least not into very many folks. You just have to pick your spots based on the action and reads.

When you flop a set, your opponent(s) shouldn't be seeing a cheap showdown. If that doesn't happen and you win a small-medium pot, so be it. Routinely slowplaying in NLHE ring is a recipe for disaster. If you are very rarely getting paid off on your sets (or other huge hands), you may need to open your game up a bit.

I think it depends to a large degree on what stakes you play at. Personally, I play the fishy stakes (25NL) so I generally don't slowplay a set. I usually bet the flopped set reasonably hard to maximize profit if there is no draw (2/3 to full pot), and bet it really hard (overbet pot to AI) if there is a draw on the board. It upsets me when my sets lose. I bet it hard when there is no obvious draw since that kinda is the point of playing pocket pairs. Most ops at the microlimits are simply not aware or not expecting a hit set so if they're gonna call down with their mid/top/2 pair, they'll do it anyways whether you're slowplaying or not.

I'm not a big fan of overbetting the pot without very good reason to do so. Even if there are draws on the board, just give drawers poor drawing odds and force them to make a mistake by calling or raising. Even if they hit, there is still potential to win a monster pot by filling up.

I like pushing sets on draw heavy boards against opponets aware enough to put me on a draw...

bet bet bet raise raise fasplay etc

I'm not a big fan of overbetting the pot without very good reason to do so. Even if there are draws on the board, just give drawers poor drawing odds and force them to make a mistake by calling or raising. Even if they hit, there is still potential to win a monster pot by filling up.

Good point. Simply put, there's two schools of thought wrt draws: 1) overbet pot; 2) give poor drawing/pot odds. Both have advantages and disadvantages. With (2), you must be willing to lay down your hand if you encounter huge resistance and the apparent draw is filled. With a flush draw this is fairly obvious, but its not so obvious with straight draws. Also, you have to factor in bluffing. The big advantage is that you can get big money by doing this. For example, say you have a hit set on a two suited flop. You have op on a flush draw, so you bet the pot on the flop. Op turns a flush and bets. You still have 10 outs to the boat or better so you call and river a boat/4 of a kind (assuming he didn't bet too big to negate pot/implied odds). In all likelihood you'll stack your op. This can also happen simulataneously (ie. card giving 3 suited board also pairs the board) which is the ideal situation.

With (1), you'll push out people who will chase with bad odds, losing profit there, yet people who will push AI on a draw will still destack you every 1 in 3 times. This *may* decrease EV I guess, though I'm not really convinced. However, this is less complicated than (2) and for the most part ensures your money is in the middle with the best hand.

I play sets fast. It is the best way to get paid. Slowplaying to the river just kills your profits because nobody is gonna chase that flush when there's no more cards to come. I play almost all hands the same on the flop whether i completely whiffed it or hit a set - by betting and raising. Give them chances to make mistakes - they won't dissapoint.

Thanks for all this advice guys. Sounds like a lot of sense and I'll put it into practice.

When I flop a set with 55 on a drawless board:

I bet enough to entice a call from as many players as possible. Trying to build the pot up as much as possible.

If I get raised on the flop I will usually call, unless I am last to call, in which case I will min-raise to try to get all of the same people who called my last bet to call this one as well.

If the turn comes a blank and doesn't show any signs of a draw, I repeat the previous step.

If the board pairs on the river, I will bet a small amout in trying to get a raise. If someone raises, I wil push AI.

When I flop a set with 55 on a scary board:

I will bet at it like I have AA (pot sized bets on the flop). If the turn is a rag, I will outbet any drawing hands. If the river is a scare card, I may check or value bet. If I get raised, my next decision is based on my read of my opponent.