How to play aces and other nut hands...

[JodaB.]

We should generally always play our aces face up, raising as big as reasonable possible preflop, betting any flop and planning to shove the turn or to bet the turn and shove the river. If we find we are in a spot where its obvious we have a strong hand and villain will fold such as a flop like Axx or AAK or KKx, we should continue to bet big for value, and instead of trapping we should consider our bluffing range in the same situation.

This goes for our strong hands as well such as hitting a set in position on a dry or non dry board, such as 99 on 952rb or A92rb or 992rb.

If we find ourselves tempted to slow play our trap in these spots we shouldn't. For most of our career we should play a strategy that includes getting value out of value hands nearly ALWAYS, and in any spots we think villain will usually fold anyways we should include more bluffs in our range in order to exploit villains tendencies.

There are so many spots all day long that I KNOW many regs and rec players are slow playing in that I am fully betting for value. There are also many spots where regs call me because they think 'Forboon wouldn't make such an obvious value bet with the nuts here' but the truth is I ALWAYS make obvious value bets.

Where I make my money is not from being tricky with my strong hands, after all how strong is pocket Aces if you flat preflop and check to the river? Not only are they drawing cheap vs a hand you can't get away from if they hit, but you miss the value of the biggest value hand in the game.

Instead I make my money from people not understanding why I show up with the occasional bluff.

Here is an example of a pay-off vs a good winning reg that doesn't seem to understand this concept. If we think of Sklansky fundamental poker theorem about perfect poker is when we turn the cards face up would we make the same plays. If the answer is no then we have made some mistakes...we'll see here villain has made giant mistakes on all streets, and all I have done is play my KK face up. For my turn bet I leave myself a very small amount behind, as there are some spots (very RARE) that I will be fold a stack like that (I can credible rep a bluff here):


No Limit Holdem Tournament
PokerStars
6 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by http://weaktight.com/
$13.77+$1.23

Stacks:
UTG 52,316 33bb
Hero (UTG+1) 29,874 19bb
CO 23,682 15bb
BTN 11,164 7bb
SB 16,109 10bb
BB 35,800 22bb

Blinds: 800/1,600 Ante 150

Pre-Flop: (3,300, 6 players) Hero is UTG+1 Kh Kc
UTG raises to 3,200, Hero raises to 4,800, 4 folds, UTG calls 1,600

Flop: Td 2c 3c (12,900, 2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets 4,800, UTG calls 4,800

Turn: 9s (22,500, 2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets 16,800, UTG goes all-in 42,566, Hero goes all-in 3,324

River: Ad (62,748, 2 players, 2 all-in)

Final Pot: 62,748
UTG shows a pair of Tens
Ks Ts
Hero shows a pair of Kings
Kh Kc

Hero wins 62,748 (net +32,874)

UTG collects 22,442 (net -29,874)

[JodaB.]

Next I'm gonna write about how to transfer chips from one tournament to another.