playing the nut

gday everybody,

so, say you've got a hand like AK AA KK QQ KQ at a table full of passive players... and you flop a monster hand, quads if you had a pocket pair or trips with AK KQ... the board is usually seen to most players as a "scary" board with it having a high pair on it... how do you play it so that these hands get the money they deserve? generally i either bet early as if to be bluffing on the flop and everyone folds or slow play it to the river and if i'm last to act i bet and again everyone folds... are there some traps i could create to somehow get other players to attempt a bluff??

Hope someone makes a hand that they can't get away from.

-'rilla

With a lot of passive limpers just bet out. Most people assume someone will slowplay trips if they flopped them.

With aggressive types in hand consider allowing them to take the wheel and check raise them on the turn or river.

If you decide to bet on a turn blank to conceal a powerful flop, then make sure you appear to be thinking about your bet before making it, as if "Hey I have this 7 paired, but those two queens are scary." Don't instabet out, or people will immediately know your trying to be slick about flopping a monster. Your goal is to string someone along who actually caught the 7 with good kicker, or has a higher pair like 99 or 10 10. Don't induce a mass exodus. If you get a couple callers on your weak looking bet, you might even try a check on the river to appear like your draw didn't pan out so you can try a check raise in EP

Also, since these situations arise more rarely than knowing if two pair is good or chasing a flush draw, you really don't have to put too much emphasis on the proper play.

Later on, when you're fine tuning your game, you can work on extracting maximum EV from your nut flop hands.

-'rilla

I don't know if it's a fishy move, but i like to bet 2/3 pot on a potential trips board. I allmost always take it down right there. at the party $25's the only guy who's gonna call has trips. i pretty much have nothing so i just check n fold to the showdown. I should look up the stats, but it sure seems like 3 out of 4 are uncontested.

i bet up to 99x or so with nothing. i'd really only make the contiuation bet on the flop if i was the aggressor.

If you flop quads I think it is almost alwats correct to make what ever your standard continuation is. This is great if you are an aggressive player, no one will put you on the monster. If you are aggressive and you check/call People begin to be wary.

Originally Posted by Demiparadigm

If you flop quads I think it is almost alwats correct to make what ever your standard continuation is. This is great if you are an aggressive player, no one will put you on the monster. If you are aggressive and you check/call People begin to be wary.

Not really. Just because the other players may happen to interpret it as some illegitimate continuation bet does not mean they are going to stay in the hand. What incentive does a player have to stay in the hand when they have absolutely nothing and their opponent is showing strength? The only incentive is the possibility of stealing the pot which, from the opponents perspective, will probably appear to involve too much risk. You may have a big pair which you may not want to fold, or you may actually have a king. These are considerations which would probably be enough to cause all but the most aggressive players to fold.

I've tried this some myself (representing a kind of continuation steal after raising preflop and then flopping something huge) and it usually fails to induce any sort of action unless my opponent actually has a hand.

Just slow-play and hope someone catches something or tries to bluff.

Pretty much what everyone else has said. You've gotta slow play it and hope somebody catches something they think is really good.

Twice in the past two days I have run into three of a kind on the board. On the river I will hit a pair and think my boat is good because some asshat has slowplayed quads....Said asshat throws out a bet that looks like it might be trying to steal a pot with a high card ace, or low pocket pair or something....so I raised over the top thinking my boat was probably good (I mean c'mon, how often do you see quads?).....and it wasn't.

So slow playing works, other people have to get lucky though if you want to get paid off.