Playing Sets

After a night of getting raked over coals by sets and feeling like I am not getting the same full value when I have a set, I wanted to get opinions on set play.

Can you post some setups for stacking villians if you have a set? How do you bet to determine if you are facing a set? I know it will always depend on your opponent, stack size, position, etc., but any scenarios will be appreciated. Also, if there was a good thread on this in the past, it would save time.

I know this question is motiviated by short term variance/frustration on my part, but I might as well use it to review and improve my play.

they are the trickiest thing for me to pick up, too.

some things i've learned to watch for:

- i see a limper open the pot. i raise big...he just calls. then leads the flop, or c/raises me.
- dry board minraises usually alert me to something fishy.
- i keep betting my TP, the villain keeps calling. the flush draw hits and all of a sudden he raises me.
- the check/call, check/call, check/minraise river.
- the guy just wont go away to any bet.

lots of people like to slowplay sets...therefore, i like to bet them when i hit. its kind of the "new" slowplay, to me.

however, there are times i will play them a bit greedily:

- when i limp and the board is dry with no face card. i check/call here.
- when i know a villain is a cbettor and i called his raise pf.
- when the flop comes with two face cards and rainbow.

all these get check/calls, then usually, a check/raise on the turn. i dont want to wait until the river.

i always bet hard when:

- the board has a flush draw on it.
- 3 cards to a straight
- there are a lot of people in the pot calling raises

i hardly ever fold one, though, before the river.

remember you have 10 outs to hit a boat or quads. and with implied odds when you are against a str8 or flush, you cant get me to fold unless you push a VERY deep stack on the flop.

when the board pairs, and gives the flush, i check/raise when oop. but, when the board pairs the river...after the flush hit the turn, i bet out smallish...hoping for a raise...1/2 pot usually will do the trick.

hope those help. those are off the top of my head.

oh, one more thing. in NL, call any raise HU or multi-way when the raiser has more than 10X behind him still. in limit, you need 5:1 to call a raise...because of the bet structure, you dont get the chance to get paid off in a HU pot.

if a $30 stack bets $2.75, i call with any pp. i will get paid...but remember, when it is YOU doing the big raise, and somebody calls...they may have the pp, too, and when they dont go away to a cbet...get a bit suspicious.

Well, if you want to stack someone there are a few ingredients:

1) They need to have a strong hand
2) You need to begin building the pot immediately, but not too obviously.
3) Bet every street

#1 you don't have control over. Bet the flop if checked to, or if first to act. I actually enjoy not having position when I have a set. But the key is to build the pot every street, especially because your opponent can slow down if a scare card appears.



My favorite line OOP in a raised pot:

Lead flop 2/3 pot, villain re-raises 2-3x what you raised. You just call. Now on the turn, you check to villain who will now pot commit themselves with a sizable bet. Now just push all your chips in the middle, villain grudgingly pushes

the donk bet lead is a nice set play, but it usually must be balanced with other donk leads IMO. I like to donk lead low flops from the blinds sometimes to mix it up, usually only against 2 players though.

NLHT&P had a good section on betting to stack an opponent. It basically said to figure out how much you want the river bet to be, and then work backwards to determine how much needs to go in on each street.

It also recommended playing your hand as though you were up against a hand that can pay you off, because if your opp has air he won't be putting much in anyways, so play it as though he has the flush draw or the TPTK, etc.

Play looser.

1. You will get more action on sets and other hands.
2. You will play more speculative hands that are sets' biggest nightmare, and will cooler villians' sets more often.